New York / State of Mind 3 (2023) Collages by Sebastian Herrling

My career began inconspicuously. And that was in the Marzahn of the early 80s.

Growing up between prefab buildings and pioneer cloths, I escaped into my own world as a child. A child who didn't really seem to fit in anywhere, but still wanted to be everywhere. I earned my pocket money, among other things, by making treasure maps that I sold to other children. I rarely lacked creativity and so I always knew how to use my time wisely. So I meandered through life, regardless of social constraints, to find my happiness. I discovered the convincing functions of a spray can early on: fast, reliable and COOL. A medium that suited me extremely well. Designing large areas, multicolored on all surfaces without any problems, that was exactly my thing in the gray Marzahn of the 90s.

It quickly became a passion that I didn't want to let go of for more than a decade. Illegal graffiti!! Me as a constant rebel against the rules of the adapted society. My name in large letters in large parts of the German capital, but completely anonymous as a person. An unknown celebrity. That corresponded to my daily conception of freedom for many years. The term "art" was frowned upon for a long time and was largely repugnant to me. Personally, I had little to no respect for graffiti artists who legally designed walls for corporations or just any institution. Straight to a betrayal of the graffiti thing. For a long time it was never about making money for me, it was just a paradoxical contradiction.

It was only after more than 20 years that this contradiction was resolved by a long-time idol from the graffiti scene. A person who even managed to get into German museums with graffiti. Visiting the studio of this icon of European style writing changed my entire image of art as I had previously perceived it. In my opinion, to the great delight of many people who are enthusiastic about my works today. This is how my first attempt at art came about, which had nothing to do with my original idea of ​​my work. An artist was born. Since that day, and with the encouragement of my one-time heroes from the illegal graffiti world, I've rediscovered my inner child's creatively bubbly, open-minded talent. Thank God. In the following years, my paths fatefully crossed with very valuable people who inspired me for art history and artists' biographies. So I studied the life of many bright stars of the art world for many years. Amazingly, the works of these people were often just a side issue for me. I was primarily interested in the lives of these pioneering personalities, including Joseph Beuys, Max Ernst and Niki de Saint Phalle.

• Nationality: GERMANY
• Date of birth : 1981
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary German Artists