Boris Hoppek (born 1970, in Kreuztal) is a German contemporary artist based in Barcelona. His artistic roots lie in graffiti, but today his work spans painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation art. His work has been used in advertising campaigns as well.
Hoppek's trademark is a symmetric oval, which appears in most of his work either alone or in a constellation of three, thus forming a face. He is the creator of The C'Mons, a fictional rock band at the centre of a viral marketing campaign for the fourth-generation Opel Corsa car. In 2010 he was named as one of the leading figures in urban art by Patrick Nguyen in his book Beyond the Street.
By Jörg Heikhaus
Boris Hoppek is a withdrawn, quiet guy. Conversation is difficult. When you talk to him, a smile is often his only answer. His charm is only revealed once you get close enough to him. And once you try to understand him. Or at least take him as he is. Then you’ll find a lot of humor, sympathy, and emotion. And also depth; something that has often been ignored, especially over the past few years. The reason being that his admittedly provocative work stands completely on its own, without any explanation or commentary.
This has always been Boris’ concept – a form of shock therapy in a comic book style. It has recently become much more problematic. For one thing, art and street art in particular have become more inoffensive while the younger generations have become a bit more … dogmatic in their criticism. Boris Hoppek’s main themes of oppression, sexism, and racism are now discussed in completely different ways, so ideally, provocative artistic positions today require an additional context or foundation. With Boris’ works, however, you still have to search for these on your own. And so he has to deal with the fact that fewer and fewer people are willing to engage with his art in a tolerant way.
I think that this is difficult for him. Although I don’t know for certain – despite our almost 20 years of friendship. I would be lying if I claimed to always understand him. It’s also difficult for galleries that want to show his work. Gallerists have to ask themselves whether they are ready for the task of functioning as translators between the artworks and the viewers.
This has always been a major effort. But since I believe in Boris’ art and his anti-racist, left-wing political attitude, his criticism of society and consumerism, I have always been willing to undertake it. Another reason is that I consider Boris Hoppek to be one of the most important German first generation graffiti artists – not only because of his revolutionary style and the way he radically interferes with public space, but also because he has always been political. In the past, for example, he called out the brutal treatment of refugees in Spain (the country where he has chosen to live for over 20 years now) long before this issue received any broader public attention.
I can remember our first exhibition very well. It was 2004. Two years earlier, I had turned my art studio in Hamburg-St. Pauli into a gallery and invited Boris to exhibit his works with me. We didn’t even know each other. I had only read an article about him in the magazine De:Bug and found his work very exciting. So I wrote him an email.
There was no social media like today. You couldn’t take a complete look into the lives of strangers on your smartphone. Appreciation was not counted by the number of followers. There was no carefully staged and filtered self-presentation. I simply had no idea who he was – and vice versa. I was just interested in his art, his attitude, and the uniqueness that I saw in his works. It was an experiment. It was impossible to predict what would happen in the exhibition. Because Boris was already withdrawn, quiet and a bit inscrutable back then.
“Micky Ficky Jesus”
That was the title of that first exhibition. I was aware of the fact that audiences would be confronted with some insensitive boundary-pushing. But that also made it interesting for me as a gallerist, in the role I never wanted everything to always be simple, explainable, and easy to sell. In my view, it is the primary task of a gallerist to mediate the content and issues of the artist. And that’s exactly what I did with heliumcowboy for Boris – in six solo exhibitions, at ten fairs in Miami, Basel, New York, Berlin, Copenhagen, at international art projects and in numerous publications.
At least until 2009. That was the year of the final big Boris Hoppek solo show in Hamburg. Near the main train station, in the so-called Bieberhaus. The art market had collapsed due to the global economic crisis. Boris’ gallery in Barcelona, Iguapop, closed down. Suddenly everything was very dramatic, and money for exhibitions was sparse. Somehow, we have still managed to work together – we are good friends, after all – but we simply have not succeeded in organizing something really significant again. Boris was of course still part of numerous group exhibitions and is still a “represented artist”. So one could still follow the development of his work at our gallery. But he increasingly disappeared from the contemporary art scene. Without Iñigo and me, the discussion about his work and its political dimension has become increasingly one-sided and has shifted to his disadvantage.
And today? I’m no longer a gallerist, so I don’t have to care. But it keeps grieving me that I cannot give the same space, time, and means to Boris that I used to. That’s why I suggested him for this important, first exhibition of 2021. And Melvin, the new heliumcowboy gallerist, agreed with me.
Melvin has known Boris since childhood. When Melvin was 9, he stood on the artist’s longboard for the first time. On the streets of Barcelona, Boris taught him how to ride it. Melvin thought that now is a good opportunity to show Boris’ work again in the context of this exhibition. And together with the corresponding catalogue there is the chance to resume the discussion and to show that Boris Hoppek is still one of the most important German artists of the past 30 years.
from the catalogue "In other words: _blank" , 2021
available here
05.21: NORDIC ISTRIA (solo, as part of triple header show “In other words:_blank” feat. Jens Rausch & Alex Diamond)
05.20: Behind closed Doors (group)
07.17: COWBOYLAND Vernissage | Exhibition Views (15 years heliumcowboy - group)
10.15: 60 Jahre Kunst in Hamburg (in colaboration with Affenfaust Galerie)
09.10: Mountain to Surf | Set up & Dinner | Exhibition Views (opening of new heliumcowboy space - group)
05.09: POPO (solo)
07.08: 5 (6) years anniversary show heliumcowboy | Exhibiton views | Vernissage | Setting up (group)
05.08: No New Enemies - Le Botanique Museum Brussels (group)
02.08: The Helping Hounds of Hell (group)
12.07: SCOPE Miami (Installation)
08.07: IGUAPOP! (group curated by Iguapop Gallery, Barcelona)
06.07: SCOPE Basel (Installation)
03.07: I won’t fuck with you tonight (solo)
02.07: SCOPE New York
12.06: SCOPE Miami
11.06: Art Fair Cologne
12.05: Egal! (solo)
10.04: Micky Ficky Jesus (solo)
This is a selection only. If you are interested in additional artwork, please get in touch for either a personal appointment at the gallery or a portfolio of available work.
