Description
Lin Felton (USA, 1958-)
QUIK
Quik, Afro-American from Queens whose real name is Lin Felton, begins to tag the walls in his suburb Hollis aged 10 only. He is so little that he must wait two years before he’s able to paint his first train. He is a lone artist, not affiliated with any crew, and he releases his social and racial anger on the Subway wagons, covering them furiously with his tag. Like many young people of the golden era of American Graffiti, he doesn’t know he is among the pioneers of a new art: for him, painting graffiti is a dangerous sport where risk and adrenaline are essential components. Quik is among the first artists to introduce figurative components next to the classic graffiti lettering, like comics (Felix the Cat is the most recurrent) and seductive pin-ups. The introduction of his art into galleries happens thanks to the support of Futura2000 that promotes it to the European art dealers, especially the Dutch and German ones. In Europe Quik evolves and grows as artist, while still maintaining a strong bond with the topics of social and racial justice that had always been important to him. He expresses them with a satirical, cynical and admittedly almost arrogant language.
