BATES RAPHIA CANVAS

BATES Original “BATES Handstyle Tag”
Canvas #032 painted June 2019
Size: 75 x 50 cm / 29,52 x 19,68 Inch
Signed with date/signature on the back “Bjorn dahl 2019 #32”
Very high quality raphia

Born in 1971 in Copenhagen, Bates began writing on the walls as a young boy and by the mid of the 1980’s he became one of the most prolific artists in his native country. As the graffiti artist of the second generation of a Danish Graffiti movement, Bates is one of the few who still follow this classic, traditional style. Although he experimented a lot, he never followed the trends and there are some elements that he uses over and over again. Bates combines the traditional graffiti writing styles developed in New York, accentuating the logic flow of letters, dynamic and swinging rhythms of shapes, with the essence of Europe, including sharp lines and graphic elements. Already in the late 1980’s Bates was one of the leading European graffiti artists, along with the names such as Loomit from Munich, Mode 2 and Bando from Paris, Delta and Shoe from Amsterdam. During his career, he has been invited to paint in many big venues around the continent and overseas, but he has never revealed his face in photographs[1]. Grew up with the anonymity of the graffiti art, he stayed mysterious and still guards his privacy intensely. In 2009, Bates has his first solo show entitled It’s about time at Copenhagen Street Wear. Since then Bates has shown his work in many solo exhibitions presenting his pieces on canvas. One of his shows called Style in Progress, at Partisan Creative Corner, is a celebration of the improvement Bates has made in thirty years of graffiti writing. Combining wall writing style with fun graphics and cartoon characters for Style in Progress, the Danish artist offers a balance of both the history of graffiti and where it can be taken in the future by Bates.