STENCIL KING

On Saturday November 28th, Hugo Kaagman wil officially present and sign the book Stencil King at The American Book Center Amsterdam. The book is a representation of the total scope of his works. During the signingsession, Diana Ozon will read from her works and talk about her memories with Kaagman. Signing from 15:00-17:00.

On Sunday November 29th the official presentation of Stencil King takes place in the artKitchen Gallery. During the presentation Rob Scholte will share his views upon Kaagman’s works and his entire oeuvre can be seen. Presentation starts at 17:00.

Hugo Kaagman was born in 1955 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He started graffiti in 1969 and stencil in 1977. Until 1985 Hugo was very active as a graffiti artist in the centre of Amsterdam. In his first period, he created murals through stencil and spray by hand and using various elements of punk and reggae culture. He developed a very own and unique graffiti-style. In his works, Kaagman tries to express his worries about the multicultural society, on Western and non-Western cultures clashing and bonding in the Netherlands. He displays an ironic commentary on politics and the society of today.  

After initially having sought his inspiration elsewhere, he discovered Holland and developed his own contemporary version of Delft blue tiles. His workspace is located in what used to be a kiosk on Amsterdam RAI Station. The work he makes and exhibits over there provokes, is humouristic and on edge.

Thanks to the combination of exquisite photographic material and texts from Tristan Manco (among others), Stencil King has become a complete and unique chronologic display of the artistic career and godfather of Dutch graffiti art, Hugo Kaagman.

Night Watch, Spray paint on paper; 2008

Source: http://www.abc.nl/