I have just been enlightened to the work of Niels Shoe Meulman. A street artist, designer and calligrapher out of Amsterdam. I discovered his work while researching Krink paint markers for upcoming live art events. Shoe, as he is called, started tagging in the early 80’s and has gained gallery notoriety be melding the grit and aggression of graffiti with the beauty and elegance of calligraphy. I am not one for words, so here is an excerpt from his site.
WHAT IS CALLIGRAFFITI?
The simple answer:
Calligraffiti is a combination of Calligraphy and Graffiti.
Calligraphy is about the art of writing and can have many forms. Whether it be Japanese ancient brush characters, Arabic pictorial scripts, illuminated mediaeval books or swirly quill writing… all calligraphy.
Graffiti is the art of getting your (pseudo) name up by writing on an urban environment. Perfected in New York City and now a worldwide phenomenon.
The fairly new art of Graffiti and its somewhat rigid rules prompts us to look further back into the history of writing. This is exactly what Niels Shoe Meulman has been doing since his teens, consequently starting to combine the two at the beginning of this century. Thus resulting in Calligraffiti: traditional handstyles with a metropolitan attitude.
Here is a selection of images from his Calligraffiti site, but you should really go on there yourself and check it out:
