Bees, bottoms, and blooming plants
10.03.20 Words by Hannah Valentine

Bees, bottoms, and blooming plants

Across his drawings, paintings, and collages Brian de Graft creates humour-filled art that basks in the beauty and fun of everyday life.
10.03.20 Words by Hannah Valentine

Often humous and gently irreverent, Brian de Graft’s artworks are always compelling. While each colourful drawing, painting, or hand-made collage feels different and individual, motifs which draw on nature recur in his work, creating a consistent sense of style throughout. “Whether they depict a humorous bottom pinch, a beautiful plant, or a bee – what they have in common is that they show the coexistence of the natural world,” he tells us. “Put simply, my artworks are celebrations of life.”

Born in Germany, Brian grew up in south-east London and Cologne, before moving to Amsterdam in 2012, where he’s now based. As a Film and Literature student he began creating collages, which alongside his passion for skateboarding, provided a welcome distraction from university work. Even as a professional artist, Brian retains this experimental attitude; he explains that he doesn’t have a set creative process, instead valuing the opportunity to explore and invent new approaches. “Sometimes I start with a thought, other times with a scrap of paper,” he says. “The materials I use depend on my mood, and the outcome I want to achieve. This keeps things interesting.”

Brian’s simple, expressive designs have led to collaborations with all types of brands – from culinary to clothing, including New York womenswear label WHiT and homeware collective, Slowdown Studio. A recent collaborative highlight for Brian was his work with Virgil Abloh’s streetwear brand Off-White, for which he created T-shirts and hoodies decorated with his signature plants, as well as ‘potheads’ – tiny people with plant pots in place of heads. He relishes being able to work with so many different kinds of people, saying, “I like collaborations that challenge me and get me to think in different ways.”

For Brian, art feeds into life and life feeds into art. He loves music, films and skateboarding, and taking his dog Homer for walks around Amsterdam, saying “All of these things are either creative or get my creative juices flowing, which definitely has an impact on my art.” However, he sees art as having the potential for impact on life as well. “Life is serious enough as it is,” he says. “I’d like my art to remind people to have fun and appreciate the beautiful aspects of it.”

“Put simply, my artworks are celebrations of life.”

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