EGS: Writing Stories with Three Letters - Signed Copies

The universe of the Finnish visual artist EGS is grounded in the use of the three letters in his name. Whether it’s his dynamic ink drawings, the slower but even more hard-to-control media of glass or a classic graffiti, those three letters are the fundament of his art and the stories he tells.

While showing works in museums and galleries internationally (lately at the Helsinki’s Kunsthalle in 2018 and at the Finnish Glass Museum in Rihimäki in 2020), EGS still keeps painting graffiti on the streets and has become an important figure in the international graffiti community.

In this book, EGS and graffiti-archivist and author Tobias Barenthin Lindblad discuss EGS’ practice in both studio and in the streets. Their conversation covers topics directly connected to the artwork that is depicted in the book, but also about the deeper meanings and driving forces of being an artist. How does one bring the energy from painting in the street into a studio? How can you bring the uncertainity in making glass into painting graffiti in the street? How do a painting in an abandoned Finnish factory and a glass sculpture in a gallery communicate? Is an artist measured by a single art work or by his or her body of work? And last but not least: can a word without meaning have a message?

"Writing Stories with Three Letters" goes deep into the art, creativity and theories of one of the most exciting contemporary artists from the Nordic countries.

About the artist: 

EGS (b. 1974 in Helsinki, Finland) began his career in the late 1980s. He has studied graffiti as an art form: it's history, styles and tradition. In recent years, he has sought to blur the boundaries between the street and the gallery context and to expand his expression beyond graffiti. In 2018, the Finnish Art Society invited EGS to give a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki. This was the first time ever that a graffiti artist had been invited to hold a solo exhibition in a Nordic art museum. The opening drew the largest audience in the history of Kunsthalle Helsinki, and the exhibition was seen by over 15,000 visitors. Works by EGS are included in Finland’s leading collections of contemporary art and they have also been displayed in galleries and museums internationally. EGS still tours the world painting on streets and abandoned buildings.

Published by Dokument Press, Stockholm, in April 2020

Hardcover, 160 pages

22 x 26 cm

English