CHRISTIAN HUNDERTMARK IS A REPUTABLE MEMBER OF MUNICH’S ART SCENE, AS ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF THE CITY'S STREET ART MOVEMENT IN THE EARLY 2000S —BUT THAT’S JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.
As an artist, painter, graffiti writer, and designer, this guy has his hands full, but that doesn’t stop his creativity.
Hundertmark is also the founder and director of C100, a design studio based in Munich. His bestselling books immortalize the legacy and reach of his graffiti, and his works have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. With an avant-garde approach, Hundertmark continues to shape and redefine the boundaries of contemporary artistry.
I started out with graffiti because I was bored on a ski holiday with my parents. So, to entertain myself I did my first ever graffiti sketches ‘Bat Man’ and ‘Anarchy’, without realizing that they would be the initial spark of my career! Soon after I painted my first real piece with spray cans and continued as an active graffiti writer through the nineties. I had a dry spell where I focused more on graphic design, because a lack of experimentation within the Munich scene made me less motivated to do graffiti. When the new street art phenomenon came into play in the early 2000s I got back into it and connected with the international scene.
As a teenager I had many different sources of inspiration, for example 80s skateboard graphics, record sleeves, magazines like Thrasher, The Face and this BMX magazine “FREESTYLIN’ which was my bible (I was an avid BMXer). I think the whole skateboarding, BMX and graffiti scene has had a lasting influence on my design aesthetic and also my attitude to life. Nowadays design studios, illustrators and artists around the globe are a great inspiration for me. For me it is often not only about the artistic work but also about the person behind it, where they come from and what they represent which impresses and motivates me.
I never stopped doing art projects even though I ran my design studio for many years. In the last few years, I’ve realized more and more artistic projects like murals, exhibitions, curations etc. but also produce graphic design and limited art editions for brands. Nowadays the studio's output is 50% art and 50% design projects, which I really like as both disciplines cross-fertilise each other in the end.
I think my art is the end product of different youth cultures I was influenced by as a teenager. Through contact with the design world, this has developed into a pleasant mixture. You can see influences of abstract collages, hard-edge painting and graffiti techniques in my work, but also classic minimalist design approaches. When designing, I like to play around and experiment. I love this constant evolution, so I'm happy to be perceived as both an artist and a designer. Both disciplines influence each other, and that's what makes it so exciting and fun for me.
I’m in good contact with some talented artists and designers here. There's a lot happening, especially in design, which was a bit different twenty years ago when you could only find a few good studios here. Nowadays there is a great, active creative scene.
