PUPPET, DANIEL BLOMQVIST – the artist who in his characteristic style paints force, freedom, history and memories with his completely unique Gridwalkers!
Puppet, Daniel Blomqvist grew up in Västerås, but now works in Stockholm.He is one of the first graffiti painters in Scandinavia and part of the first generation of graffiti painters in Europe. Daniel is self-taught and today an internationally recognized artist with murals and exhibitions all over the world. A few years ago also noticed by the French art collector and fashion designer Agnes B, which led to the start of a collaboration between them.
– But it all actually started already at the playground, when Daniel felt appreciation for his drawings. He remembers that, despite his young age, he received a positive response when it came to drawing and creative activities. Creativity was within him and colour and form early on became important tools for Daniel to express himself and take up space. It inspired him to continue. From the age of thirteen, his art consisted mostly of implementing a kind of graffiti life. During the eighties, graffiti became an identity, explains Daniel, who already danced Electric boogie in 1983 with a filter pen in his pocket.
“Puppet” became Daniel’s graffiti name. It eventually gained attention in Europe and the world. Success gave him the opportunity to travel and experience a lot. ”But the graffiti became a bit like a repetitive pattern. It kind of owned my creativity and my form completely. During the nineties I started to think about whether I was limiting myself as an artist because I had more dimensions that I wanted to develop. And who was Puppet in all this? I needed to find my own Puppet identity that wasn’t just graffiti,” says Daniel.
About twenty years ago a kind of creature came to Daniel. He describes it as though he found the tools but not the complete answer. The thing that came to him was shaped by his way of painting, not the other way around. Daniel began to develop a unique style that is based on a grid pattern, or net, with which he can stretch and pull the motif. He named the style Grid style and it has gradually matured into an abstract as well as figurative world of images imbued with grids, filled with playful fancy, always with feeling and a serious bottom line. In the sketchy image pattern, there are lines, speed, freedom and a Sci-fi-inspired being, a friend or alter ego, who both meets life and accompanies you into sleep; Gridwalkers.
Daniel is inspired by life around him and experiences that turn into erased memories. This, together with his many years of graffiti, form the basis of his artistic DNA. The technique being spray paint, sketchy pencil strokes, acrylic and coffee. During the exhibition at Gamla Kraftstationen, you get to experience Puppet’s characteristic Gridwalkers marked by coming of age, and bursting with emotions, history and memories! Gridwalkers is the dream that was born twenty years ago which has now come to life: ”The little boy that I once was and who may always be with me – even today.”
You can experience a site-specific work signed Puppet inside the art gallery.
Exhibition period: May 1st – September 21
Instagram: @puppetindustries
