Sans Serifs, No Letters

Niels Shoe Meulman is an artist from Amsterdam who began tagging ‘Shoe’ in 1979 and became a graffiti legend by the time he was 18. Shoe revolutionised the art of writing in 2007 with Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. Since then, his calligraphic paintings have been shown in countless international exhibitions and are part of several museum collections. His recent painting style can be described as Abstract Expressionism with a calligraphic origin. It plays an important role in the new art movement — Abstract Vandalism.

For this mural, Shoe did something he has never done before — he painted a poem that he wrote himself. Being a writer for over 35 years, Shoe combined several influences, his love for lettering mixed with calligraffiti, along with his love for plants, to create this piece.

He used traditional Indian brooms made of dry grass available at every corner shop to show how nature is the original creator and the artist is a catalyser of its messages. This piece also relies on the integration of traditional elements- such as natural brooms and calligraphy - and the urban reality of graffiti.