About

Welcome to SHOKthen, the retrospective of work by British outsider artist SHOK-1.

Artist Statement

“I became immersed in graffiti writing and hiphop subculture in the summer of 1984 and over the next couple of decades produced thousands of wall paintings, drawings, characters, letter pieces, posters and other artworks. I was entirely self-taught and remain so to this day, the archetypal outsider artist.

A percentage of the work was illegal, the vast majority was non-commercial. I started working internationally in 1989 and painted all around the world with many of the best – from hardcore Brooklyn bombers to German technicians, fine artists to fined vandals.

Up until now, a lot of my work remained unpublished or barely appeared in underground media. The paintings were often ephemeral, destroyed soon after completion. Much of it appeared in “unspaces”, in no-man’s lands where only a few would venture. The drawings in particular have generally only been seen by a handful of close friends.

I will be updating daily. The artwork will not appear in chronological order but can be categorised by year if you wish.

I rarely look back at my own work; it will be an education for me. All the art that I make now – no matter how far out I go – is informed by my long foundation in subculture. I always took graffiti writing seriously as an artform and strived to stay out of my creative comfort zone and experiment as much as possible. This site will grow into a map of those adventures.

I hope you find it interesting. I welcome feedback.

Enjoy.”

SHOK-1
London, January 2009