Martin Whatson is a Norwegian artist born in 1984. During his stay in Oslo, while studying Art and Graphic Design at the Westerdals School of Communication, he started to develop a great interest in the art of graffiti and the stencil world. He produces his own work since 2004 and as a result of it he has participated in numerous exhibitions and has collaborated with other urban artists. In the past three years he has had solo shows in cities like Paris, Tokyo and Copenhagen.
A street art follower since the nineties decade, it wasn't until he discovered Banksy when he decided to try with the stencil. This is why his work combines these two elements in a unique way and it is characterized by grey monochromatic images done with stencils and decorates them with graffiti of vibrant colours.
Martin Whatson is inspired by people, posters or other graffiti and has a weakness for urban spaces in decay and abandoned. His work is not charged with a political or social criticism but he likes to leave a subtle message on which anyone can reflect and draw his or her own conclusions. He is an emotional artist that seeks to transmit feelings and with a great taste for aesthetics and the beauty of images and colour.
We can find his work shown to the public in urban murals in cities of his natal Norway like Stavanger or Oslo but he has also crossed his country frontiers to other places like Paris or Tokyo. Nowadays is works combining these urban mediums with works developed on canvas o other materials such as aluminium, metals or wood.
Regarding Martin Watsons' graphic work, we can say that he is a quite prolific artist and his prints are sold out really fast. There are not many the prints we can find in galleries as the mayor part of his editions are limited to a few copies, usually hand finished, and because of that a big part of them is already in hands of private collectors.
In the many festivals and multiple exhibitions he has participated in for about a decade now, Martin Whatson has had the chance to work with other artists such as Roamcouch, Pure Evil or Snik.
