The Associates are the founder members of the 1/1 Collective, hand-picked by Nike and SHOWstudio to set the standard for 1/1. Shortlisted artists will exhibit alongside them at Basel. You can view their portfolios here, and view their work in the gallery.
Associates
Introducing the founder members of the 1/1 Collective, hand-picked by Nike and SHOWstudio to set the standard for 1/1. If you make it to the final 11 you’ll exhibit alongside them at the Art of Football Show in Basel. Is your work worthy? View the Associates’ portfolios to find out.
VHS
VHS is a street artist who lives and works in London and Lisbon. Graduating in 2005 from High School in Seixal (Portugal), he’s studying in Central St Martins London since 2007.
Since the age of 13, VHS has left his distinctive mark on the streets. When he first discovered graffiti, he did not imagine himself years later broadening the limits, breaking down the barriers of expressivity, blending languages, innovating tools and media in street art and raising its status to a serious contemporary graphic and artistic language. This has been one of his greatest achievements.
His ongoing projects include urban requalification work in degraded districts around Lisbon developed together with the local communities.
Though young, he had exhibited in many shows in Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Wroclaw, London and Los Angels. VHS is a staunch ambassador for street art and Works to gain even more recognition for this exciting medium.
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Dominic Wilcox
After a degree in graphic design and a further period making sculptures, Dominic moved to London in 2000 to study on the world-renowned Design Products course at the Royal College of Art.
During this two-year period of intensive critical debate and creative experimentation, he developed a series of objects including pieces such as War Bowl – plastic soldiers fused together to form a bowl; Honesty Stamps – stamps you can use when too busy to say things such as 'In all my life I've never met anyone as beautiful as you'; and Glove – a glove made from the cast of his hand.
After leaving the RCA in 2002, he quickly got involved in a design project and partnership called Mosley meets Wilcox. One major MMW project was a collaboration with Rock photographer Mick Rock which ended in a collection of objects exhibited Sept 2004.
In 2006 Dominic went solo, and continues to develop new work, experiments and ideas in art, design, animation and drawing.
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Ewen Spencer
Ewen Spencer is a British photographer who graduated from The University of Brighton School of Art and Design in 1997. After his degree show, which introduced him as a perceptive documenter of British sub-cultures, he began working as a freelance photographer. Ewen quickly gained commissions and fame from magazines such as The Face, Sleazenation and i-D.
Ewen's documentary images regularly graced the pages of London and New York's style press and were included in "SEEN – Black Style UK" published by Booth-Clibborn in 2001.
Tipped by Martin Parr as the most promising newcomer in the pages of Visionaire magazine in 2002, Ewen gained a reputation for his work with bands such as The Streets, The White Stripes and New Order.
In 2005 Ewen completed a series of images taking a look at an extended group of teenagers on London's "Grime" Scene which eventually became a touring exhibition and book called "Open Mic". Images from this continue to be shown at various galleries and museums around the world and are in many public and personal collections.
Commissions have included a limited edition photographic booklet for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, advertising campaigns for Sony Walkman and Nokia, and a recent photographic study on South London teenage violence for Stern Magazine.
He still works as a regular contributor to The Fader magazine, New York.
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Joel Tettamanti
Joël Tettamanti is a Swiss photographer who graduated from the Cantonal Art School, Lausanne, in 2001. He is a traveller and an observer best known for photography that gives a visual to abstract parameters such as emptiness, width and longing.
In his prints the viewer becomes a traveller and observer, lost in evocative photography. In this way Joel likes to give people the chance to travel to places they'd never otherwise get the chance to see. His photographs challenge our ways of seeing, perception and imagination. He is known for his ironic juxtaposition of man-made with nature, often bringing humour to his photographs in this way.
Joel Tettamanti has photographed in places as diverse as Thang Long, Harajuku Japan and Stadtland Schweiz. He has also exhibited all over the world including China in 2005, and exhibits regularly in his native Europe. He has appeared widely in publications such as Salins, Stadte Bauen, and Stadland Schweiz, amongst others.
He is more than simply a photographer – he is also a researcher and an explorer, an artist and concerned documenter of modern life.
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Artemiy Lebedev
Artemy Lebedev was born in Moscow on February 13, 1975. After graduating from Moscow High School he entered Moscow Lomonosov University's School of Journalism.
Artemy has a unique stance on project commissions that can be traced back to his education - he won't accept work from private citizens, political, governmental or religious organizations. As well as being very selective, he has also been extremely prolific in his career. To date he has been involved in over 500 commissions, including illustration, insignia, logos, brand work, corporate identities, websites, books, magazines and posters.
In 1995 Artemy set up and began to run a well-known studio called the 'Art Lebedev Studio’. His unique philosophy 'design will save the world’ has proven to be a hit. The studio began its career specialising in graphic design, expanding and moving onto mediums as diverse as web design, education and advertising. Employing over 200 people and with Artemy at its head as company director, the studio is still one of the most famous in Russia.
In 2007 the Art. Lebedev Studio designed the inaugural issue of Russia magazine – an English language periodical about Russia.
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Pawel Kozowski 'Swanski'
PAWEŁ KOZŁOWSKI 'Swanski' was born Warsaw, 1980, and belongs to what is known in the art world as the generation of change – the transformation generation. His own experiences of change give him two realities - described by him as ‘one grey and one colourful’, have had a strong influence on him and his work.
He describes his work thus:
"Swanofobia was born back in 2001, while I was living in Germany. It was right after I'd finished creating my one-man graphics studio under the name of Swanarts, doing mainly commercial work as a designer and illustrator".
The idea behind Swanofobia is captured by the slogan from escapism to enthusiasm - escapism caused by the fear of the world, its complexity and the lack of a permanent point of reference….All these things drew me to where my state of mind has shifted to enthusiasm; a need to act, create and realize this new world in as many ways as I can."
PAWEŁ's new world is realised in many different ways, from painting and drawing right through to clothing design and modern media such as motion design.
He is always searching, hunting for new modes and avenues of expression.
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Silvia Prada
Silvia Prada, an artist and illustrator, works In Barcelona, Spain. Following her Fine Arts degree from the University of Salamanca in 1993, Silvia continued her Postgraduate Studies in Visual Communication in Kassel, Germany.
Silvia’s work incorporates a strong ideology of movement within a broad range of contemporary popular culture – including fashion, design, art and illustration.
After being involved in various workshops with artists such as Juan Muoz, Laurence Weiner, Thomas Grnfeld and Richard Deacon she was selected in 1994 for a Gallery circuit with Juana de Aizpuru in Madrid.
In 1999, Silvia contributed to various Spanish magazines and worked as an interior designer for some popular women’s clothing stores, before getting back into the publishing world - collaborating with Colette on an exhibition project for the Self-Service Magazine.
She continues to work on projects with international magazines such as The Face, Dazed & Confused, Carlos Magazine and Blackbook and recently showcased her latest work in galleries and museums around Spain and beyond.
Silvia has just published her latest work in ‘The Silvia Prada Art Book,’ where she continues to explore popular culture in its various different forms.
Alice Hawkins
Alice Hawkins is a London-based photographer who graduated from Camberwell College of Art in 2002. She has shot stories for Pop, i-D, Russian Vogue, Harper's Bazaar (US) and The Independent Magazine, and her celebrity subjects have included Donatella Versace, Marilyn Manson and Kanye West.
In 2003 she was runner-up in The Independent's American Express Fashion Photography competition judged by a panel including Alexander McQueen and Nick Knight. Her entry was noted for its studies of emblems shaved into the pubic hair of female sitters.
Much of Alice's work centres around the female as a subject, and she often turns the camera onto herself. Sometimes she will even adopt costumes and outfits – so transforming herself into other people and personalities.
Hawkins has commented of her own approach, 'Sometimes I make a friend and photography naturally happens; sometimes photography happens and I make a friend.’ Perhaps this is why she always manages to capture the personality of her sitters so completely.
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Rebecca & Mike
Rebecca and Mike are two halves of a London-based creative partnership, whose process of creating visual communication involves analysing aspects of human cognition, behaviour, culture and experience.
In 2003 IDEA magazine classified their practice as one that 'defies definition in existing categories like product and graphic design, and reveals new angles of the essential nature of phenomena that lie before our eyes'.
They drop methods and techniques from cognitive science and statistics into their designs, resulting in projects that clarify popular issues in the same way that adding one line to a diagram can make the solution to a mathematical problem seem simple.
In 2006 they contributed to SHOWstudio's Twelve Days exhibition alongside many other well-known artists.
They have worked on projects for Paul McCartney, Trevor Beattie, the UK Government, Cadbury's and many other industry leaders. The varied projects they have undertaken include: analysing 17 years of data to reveal the hidden stories of the Tate's Turner Prize; selling pieces of road as archaeology of the future; and stripping down MTV's schedule, rebuilding it using only five lego bricks.
Whatever Rebecca and Mike do visually they surprise and delight. Their aim is to cause us to question what we thought we knew about human culture and experience.
Gareth Pugh
Gareth Pugh is an outlandish fashion designer who has received global recognition both for his clubwear and his novel approach to redefining modern luxury. Born in Sunderland, he studied fashion at the City of Sunderland College, completing his degree at Central St Martins in 2003.
It was during a work placement after this that Pugh met expert French furrier Michelle Lamy. In the Autumn of 2006, Lamy became official backer to Pugh, their collaboration marking a more luxurious direction in his work with the introduction of cashmere, leather and mink to his collections.
Pugh's designs such as his famous inflated balloon garments are inspired by shape, proportion and process. He has shown at London Fashion Week as part of Fashion East and was awarded New Generation sponsorship to show in Autumn/Winter 2006.
Pugh has collaborated with magazines including Arena Homme+, Self Service, CENT, i-D and Dazed & Confused. In 2004, Pugh's 'inflatable creatable' installation was chosen as the sculptural centre piece for a Dazed & Confused exhibition. Pugh also regularly collaborates with Judy Blame, who designs exclusive jewellery pieces to accompany his collections.
Pugh's designs are stocked in Side by Side in Japan, Seven and Opening Ceremony in New York, in London by Browns and Dover Street Market.
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Claudio Sinatti
Born in 1972, Claudio Sinatti is a world-renowned multimedia artist. He started as a graphic and graffiti artist in the early '90s, before moving onto directing in film and video. As a director he created music promos for Italian bands such as Casino Royale, Neffa, Carmen Consoli, Alex Britti and 99 Posse.
Always keen to push boundaries, in 1999 Claudio founded a collective for audio-visual experimentation that drew together videomakers, photographers, illustrators and musicians all of whom bought their expertise to a wide variety of exciting projects.
Since then Claudio has explored the frontiers of live electronics and audio-visual installations, constantly crossing between his personal artistic research and commercial projects. One example is his 2007 work where Henry Hathaway's 1966 movie starring Steve McQueen "Nevada Smith" was twisted to "A Shaved Mint" and re-edited into a 16' panning collage including every single shot. Most recently he has exhibited a 12 custom monitor interactive installation called Per Mille Giraffe!
Claudio Sinatti has exhibited extensively and collaborated with artists as diverse as Christian Fennesz, Scanner and Stephan Mathieu.
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Erdil Yasaroglu
Erdil Yasaroglu is a prolific and successful cartoonist. He was born in Istanbul in 1971 and studied sculpture at the Mimar Sinan University in 2002, by which time he was already famous for his cartoons.
After finishing high school in 1989, Erdil joined the Lemon journal. He worked hard from the beginning and achieved his aim to be one of the youngest cartoonists ever to get their own column there.
In 1990 he began to work in television and was employed on a puppetry programme called the 'Plastip Show'. After leaving this show he set up the 'Mr Veb Creation Team', contributing to various local well-known television talk shows, serials and comedy programmes.
In 1999 Erdil established Komikaze.net, where he created and works on a famous cartoon character called Marlon. In 2002 he set up the Penguen comic journal.
It is testament to Erdil's obvious enjoyment of his craft that he has many impressive stats to his name. He has been a cartoonist on 12 different comic journals, has won 26 awards, and has credits for 46 television programmes, various radio shows, a stand-up comedy gig and a play, to name but a few.
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Khaya
Khaya was born in Tshewane, South Africa, and has lived there all his life. His passion for the genre was first sparked by the foreign-translated TV shows and cartoons that he loved so much as a child growing up.
At the age of nine, Khaya decided he would try his hand at drawing his own cartoons. Although like any boy he changed his mind many times about what he wanted to do when he grew up, he eventually took the interest seriously, and after watching the movie 'Spirited Away' in 2004 he realised he wanted to make a career out of his passion.
During 2006 and 2007 Khaya lived, breathed and dreamed cartoons, experimenting with many different illustrative styles and techniques. By January 2008 Khaya felt confident that he could make his cartoonist dream a reality. He is well on his way towards achieving that dream.
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Pfadfinderei
Pfadfinderei is an international design bureau established in Berlin, 1998. What started as a vector-orientated print and design business soon expanded into what they call an enhanced multimedia 'wurstfabrik'. Today Pfadfinderei has three main divisions – corporate design, production and installation design.
The name ('pathfinders' or 'boy-scouts' in English) is derived from the nature of their expertise – essentially finding and visualizing creative paths. This is amply demonstrated in their different divisions. The corporate section innovates in the visual communication of brands or companies. They achieve this by developing new brand guidelines and creating elements like new fonts for businesses to give them added individuality. The production division takes care of illustration, motion design, video production and panoramic photography as well as DVD and web services. The installation division innovates in the area of multimedia design.
Perhaps the biggest passion of Pfadfinderei is to be found in this last area and in the live visualisation of music known as VJing. This is where images amplify and express music being played. With their extraordinary multimedia room installations – where they bring such images to life - they've worked with companies as diverse as TV studios to large businesses and trade fairs.
All Pfadfinderei artists, designers and visualizers are extremely passionate about their art.
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+41
Set up by Philippe Cuendet, Laurence Jaccottet and Ivan Liechti, all of whom graduated from the "écal" (école cantonale d'art de Lausanne), //DIY is a graphic design agency with a solid Swiss identity. The name is a reference to the international dialling code of Switzerland, and +41 is the fashion brand established in 2001 as part of //DIY.
+41 //DIY explores inspired ways to combine everyday clothes with printed and embroidered visuals derived from the graphic world. Since 2001, their clothes have been successfully distributed in select, exclusive shops all over the world.
Always on the lookout for new ideas, this Swiss studio works to a principle they call "graphic design in the expanded field," which means their creative expression knows no bounds. Their combined expertise encompasses art direction, photography, illustration, music, fashion design, confectionery design and video.
+41 and //DIY have had the opportunity to work with numerous large-name designers around the world, always bringing something new to the mix. Both studios, and their collaborative efforts, continue to surprise and delight in the world of fashion and design.
Boxie
It's often said that owners resemble their pets. Similarly, there seems to be a striking likeness between the artist Boxie and the figures that dominate his art. Creatures with drawn out limbs move quick and smooth over the artist's canvas.
Motivation to work has never been a problem for Boxie. This renegade Dutchman attacks his work with a real hunger. Fear for ‘the empty white space' that plagues many artists is not a concern for Boxie, he needs the emptiness and space to purge his creative energy.
This work ethic has seen Boxie continuously develop high-quality work that's always well received at his many exhibitions and by a growing number of the public and collectors.
Boxie's work has been evolving over the years. He started with a brush and canvas, but today he can't resist the bright and chunky allure of spray cans and markers. This new approach has been integral to the development of Boxie's work. Where he goes next is anybody's guess… but it's sure to be interesting.