logo
We are an amazing agency
The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary.
Read More →

Adrian Falkner

Born 1979, lives and works in Basel (CH)

 

Adrian Falkner is a Swiss artist who works between urban culture and painting. The painter uses spray cans just as naturally as he utilises paintbrushes, and devotes himself to urban contemplations on the canvas. Conscious of his artistic origins, Falkner engages with urban space through the context of painting, exploring the integrity of image creation. He merges the visual language of both interior and exterior spaces and critically questions the division between high culture and everyday life, reflecting on the cultural codes of the urban and the exhibition spaces along with their protagonists.

 

Under the pseudonym Smash137, Falkner has been an integral part of public space for almost three decades and contributes to the urban landscape. Adrian Falkner went from spray can shop owner to style writer and from trained graphic artist to member of the Montana Writers Team, making him one of the defining figures of the graffiti movement. Since 2005, Falkner has been working in his studio, translating his experiences from public art into painting on canvas. After a Master of Fine Arts at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel, it became crucial for Falkner to reflect on the inside and outside, art and urban space, Smash137, and the visual artist Adrian Falkner. Falkner persistently addresses the question of how urban experiences can be translated into indoor spaces and traditional art forms. The site-specificity, the painter’s working process, and the context are essential to Falkner’s oeuvre. Adrian Falkner’s artistic expression finds form in fragmented pieces, while his visual language is rooted in the abstract.

 

Text: Nathalie Gallus

 

2015– 2017 MA Fine Arts, Department of Fine Arts, Academy of Art and Design, Basel

2000 – 2004 Visual Communication, Adcomm, Basel, Switzerland

1996 – 1998 FSG Academy of Art and Design, Olten, Switzerland

Solo Shows (Selection)

2024 Smash137, BC Gallery, Basel

2024 Cazimi, Zone Contemporain, Bern

2023 Spolia, Pop;68, Cologne

2022 Don’t sit on the furniture, Le Feuvre & Roze, Paris (Cat.)

2019 Hands, Lotsremark Projekte, Basel

2018 Bad Swimmer, Circle Culture, Hamburg

2018 Cold Fever, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris (Cat.)

2016 Thinking Hand, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris (Cat.)

2015 Streunergold, Die Kunstagentin, Köln (Cat.)

2014 Neue Farbe, Galerie Neuheisel, Saarbrücken (Cat.)

2014 Graffiti Painter, Galerie Le Feuvre, Paris (Cat.)

2013 Disclosure, Library Street Collective, Detroit (Cat.)

2013 Public Enemy, Galerie ABTART, Stuttgart (Cat.)

2012 Beautiful Struggle – Speerstra Gallery | Bursins

2011 Grow Up!, Galerie Celal, Paris (Cat.)

2010 Lost & Found, Speerstra Gallery, Bursins

2009 Karambolage, Speerstra Gallery, Genève

2009 Work in Progress, Galerie Roland Aphold, Basel

 

Public Space (Selection)

2022 Syydebändel, Vertical Dance Hub Basel

2018 Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Bogota

2017 Anonymous Flags, Münchensteinerbrücke, Basel

2017 Art Walk, Saarbrücken

2016 Big Wave Line, Sülmertor, Heilbronn

2016 Le Mur, Strassbourg

2015 Metropol, Heidelberg

 

Workshops

2024 „Brand your name. The Art of Tagging“  University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong

2017 Rendez-Vous D`Artistes, Musées D`Art et D`Histoire, Geneva

2016 Fokus Dubuffet, Fondation Beyeler, Basel

Selected Group Shows (Selection)

Upcoming 04th March 2025, 8 Times 8, University Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong

2024 Unified / Contrasts, Colab Gallery, Weil am Rhein

2024 Dynamic Of Whoa!, Constant Dschungel Artspace, Freiburg

2024 Deponie24, Skulpturenpark Steinmauer, Steinmauer

2024 Skateboards 2, Forum Kunst Rottweil, Rottweil

2023 Couplet Pair Rebus, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong

2022 X, Lotsremark Projekte, Basel

2022 Malerei im Transit, Kasko, Basel

2021 Mixed Pickles 10, Ruttkowski;68 @ Michael Horbach Foundation, Cologne

2021 Transit, Voltage, Basel

2020 PAMX, Le Commun, Geneva

2019 Mixed Pickles 6, Ruttkowski;68 @ Michael Horbach Foundation, Cologne

2019 Spirit of Exploration, Ad Hoc Kunstraum, Olten

2019 Smash137 – Niklaus Stoecklin – Mark Tobey – Yves Dana, Carzaniga, Basel

2018 Liquid Planet, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz

2018 Foundation Painting Show, British Heart Foundation, Glasgow International

2017 We Invite You To Hope, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz

2017 Come Alive, Circle Culture, Hamburg

2016 Grenzenlos Grausam, Skulpturenhalle, Basel

2016 LSC Presents, Library Street Collective, Detroit

2016 Artmosphere, Manezh, Moscow

2015 Invisible College, FWMOA, Fort Wayne

2015 Main Street, Museum Mohammed VI, Rabat

2014 Regionale 14, Städtische Galerie Stapflehus, Weil am Rhein

2014 Person, Place or Thing, 68 Projects, Berlin

2013 Just In, Association La Lune En Parachute, Epinal

2013 Between The Lines, Fabien Castanier, Los Angeles

2012 Stuck on the City, City Gallery, Prague (Cat.)

2010 Public Provocations II, Colab, Weil am Rhein

2010 Beyond Graffiti, Haus der Kunst, Munich (Cat.)

2009 Tomorrow ain’t Promised, Kunstverein, Heidelberg

2009 Born Under Punches, ABTART, Stuttgart

2008  No New Enemies, Le Botanique, Bruxelles

2008 Gedanken zur Revolution, Spinnerei, Leipzig

2008 Young Blood, Forum Kunst Rottweil, Rottweil

2007 Silver & Black, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne

2007 The Walls Belong To Us, Powerhouse Arena, New York

2007 2nd Hand Smoke, Modart, Köln