BustArt, contemporary urban artist from Lindenstrasse, Switzerland. Photography © Nika Kramer

1.Tell us what you do and your beginnings.

I call my art Graffitipop, it’s a mix of graffiti: Pop art and cartoons. In 1999 I began my artistic career with classic graffiti. Until 2005, I became deeply with the whole spectrum of graffiti and reached a new level of identification with the various facets of the subculture.

In addition to the classic graffiti works, I started to combine letters with cartoon based characters, leading my art to more figurative works. Stickers, stencils and posters on my travels through Europe inspired me for a further artistic development. I adopted a new range of techniques and skills which were helping me to realize new motives, statements and street art experiments.

Smurfface © BustARt

2.What are your favorite museums in the world? Why?

I am a fan of the Urban Nation Museum in Berlin because its one of only three museums who show my kind of art worldwide. Street art and graffiti still has a hard time to be excepted by the elite art scene.

3.How important are social networks in your business? And which platform do you prefer and why.

They are important to stay connected worldwide. Social media allows me to get in contact with locals before my travels. Social media is good for a one on one contact with my clients and fans.

At the same time I could also live without it because it makes the PPL less smart and makes them focus on the screen instead of the real world. And who knows maybe there is a painting on the wall from me once they look up from their phone.

4.What are your future projects?

I currently work on new designer toys, I love to turn my art in to a 3D object. Next to that i constantly work on new projects like walls, commissions or free works.

  • Home sweet home. Ph. © Nika Kramer
  • Mixup © BustArt
  • Pigpounder © BustArt
  • Bollwerk © BustArt
  • Hello © BustArt
  • BustArt from Switzerland paints a One Wall for Urban Nation, Art Park Tegel at Neheimer Straße, 2020. © Nika Kramer
  • Bottmingen © BustArt
  • Gso © BustArt
  • Berlin. Ph. © Nika Kramer
  • Basel. Ph. © Dedi Basel

5.To create greater engagement among museums, artists and professionals, do you have any advice for cultural projects such as #MuseumWeek?

Always be open for new adventures, new techniques and new goals.

Interview by Fabio Pariante, journalist

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BustArt on social networks: Facebook – Instagram

BustArt (Basel, 1983) is a Swiss urban artist famous for his giant pop graffiti based on different expressive techniques: from freehand painting to stencil up to 8 layers, made with aerosol spray cans to give each work a deep and unique impact.

BustArt combines figurative elements, in particular cartoons such as Super Mario, The Simpsons, SpongeBob, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny and Alice in Wonderland, with letters and harmonious shapes that complete the complex work, each with strong colors. Among the most famous murals there is undoubtedly Smurfface (inspired by The Smurfs created by the cartoonist Peyo in 1958) of which he has also created a small sculpture 33 cm high, an art toy in vinyl, resin and PVC, in a limited edition and his face is composed of the letters of the artist’s name. BustArt lives and works in Switzerland.