FROM THE STREET TO THE GALLERY - ART OF DAIM

It takes couple of paint cans and a doze of imagination. Right? Or is it something else?

It's fascinating how much can be done with a blank concrete wall. I talk about beautiful things.

Every time I found myself in front of a colorful street piece that looks like being removed from an art gallery and put there, I wonder - How is that possible? This is not human. Now imagine you stand and look on a huge 3D work. It is unbelievable.

Bright colors, large-size sharp geometric shapes and 3D vision are the foundation of art which DAIM bombs the gray urban landscape /and not only/. But all this proves it takes more than a bag of paint and a sketch. It takes creativity and perfect implementation.

Born in the year 1971 near Hamburg, Germany, Mirko Reisser, also known as DAIM quickly develop his skills in the direction of street art. In 1989 Mirko sprayed his first works, still under the writing name of CAZA in those days, which he kept till the year of 1992. His first commissioned pieces were sprayed in 1990.

The surreal look of the paints and his highly technically sophisticated style obtained him the reputation of being one of the best graffiti-artists in the world.

Undoubtedly.

Somewhere at the beginning of the 90's DAIM developed his 3D-skills. He quickly rose to fame with his trademark of creating the four letters of his writing name in three-dimensional style. The absent of outlines in his works differs them from other similar styles. In fact by applying light and shadow effects the shapes are placed in such a way that one gets the impression the letters are floating in air and are tangible.

DAIM is co-founder of TCD (trash-can design), the first crew that the artist he was a part of. One of the most renowned Crews - the American FX Crew invited him to be part of and in 1996 DAIM went to New York and accepted. Other crews he joined are: FBI (Fabulous Bomb Inability), SUK (Stick-Up Kids), ES (Evil Sons) and GBF (Gummibärchenfront).

At 1995 together with other international graffiti-artists DAIM creates the highest graffiti in the world. Entry in the Guinness Book of Records. Opening ceremony through the major of Hamburg/Germany.

Held from 2000 to 2002 in Hamburg, The Urban Discipline exhibitions, are among the most important graffiti exhibitions worldwide. In the year 2000 Mirko Reisser in cooperation with Gerrit Peters and Heiko Zahlmann planned and organized the first one of the exhibitions. In an interview Os Gêmeos, famous twin-brother graffiti artists from Brazil, called it a great project.

„We’ve lead the discussion, if graffiti actually is art, very intensely at the latest in 2002 at the Urban Discipline exhibition.

This was also a reason to organize this exhibition. We wanted to establish a forum and lead a discussion on the topic, how graffiti changes when canvas is used as a medium for it or when it is exhibited.

In the end you can’t define this in general. But as a result it was pretty clear – and this has already been my opinion – that graffiti can’t be art automatically. […] Art has to be defined by something different than just by technique.”

— Mirko Reisser (DAIM) in: DAIM - der Profi. Backspin Magazin. Nr. 95, July–August 2008, p.5.

In 2009 DAIM participated in ARTotale of the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, where 36 international street artists were invited to the city. Two other well-known projects of the artist were developed in cooperation with the agency Jung von Matt/Next for Tagged In Motion and Nextwall. For the project Nextwall DAIM and other graffiti artists created a mural. Later interactive elements such as QR Codes and object recognition were inserted that allowed to transfer information to mobile devices.