Dem189 graffiti’s are hard to pin down to any one particular style – as is the case with many of his colleagues. Integrating diverse movements from punk rock to heavy metal, electro to hip-hop, switching from one to the other, he developed his own artistic way of expressing himself.
Dem189 is a Beirut-born contemporary artist whose work unpredictably evolves between lettering, illustration and abstraction – all combined in a unique Science Fiction style of graffiti that put Dem189 on the map of Street art for good. Influenced by countless inspirations, Dem189 has managed to create both an unusual and distinctive world often dealing with the juxtaposition of organic and mechanic. Growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, Dem189’s early childhood was marked by the armed conflict and many bad things that go along when two countries decide it’s time to wage war with each other. Confined at home while terror was ruling outside, the artist had created his own universe using Legos and sketches. This little, private world was an escape from the harsh reality that was all around Dem1189 and it will later serve as the basis for his graffiti. Fascinated by war and tales of machines used during conflicts, young Dem189 also put on paper his fantasized weapons and war crafts – genesis for his future practice. In the late 1980s, Dem moved to the capital of France, where he discovered a whole new urban biotope with different rules and cultures. And no war. Thrilled by the perspective of this new safe life, Dem189 got into graffiti in his early teens. He ran away from the war zone but it never left him – the artist needed to keep channeling his inner fascinations. And Dem189 did that by painting urban environments with graffiti unlike anything the street has seen before.
Written by WideWalls