Introducing London’s Sky High Graffiti Artist Panik
Co-founder of the ATG crew and renowned for his remarkable head for heights, Panik has become one of London’s most sought-after graffiti artists. Red8 is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with the artist whose eye-catching work has been exhibited all over the world.
Born and raised in Camden in north London, Panik’s journey as an artist began in 1999 when he started creating graffiti on the streets of his own neighbourhood. “I first got into it through my school funnily enough”, Panik told street art blog Vandalog in a 2010 interview. “There was a hall of fame behind the sports hall and a train tunnel that runs underneath the school with pieces by all of the old school heads. I used to check all the graff when skating over round the Westway and the South Bank as well. When I started, it was quite a natural thing to do as everyone had a tag. It started with trying to be the most up in my school, then the local area, then the whole of London and nowadays I am painting wherever I find myself in the world.”
Panik quickly rose to prominence as part of the ATG crew who dominated the London street art scene in the early Noughties. From the outset Panik stood out for his willingness to go to great heights, quite literally, to make his mark. Panik quickly learnt that the higher he went, the more likely his art was to avoid being scrubbed off or painted over. Known as something of a spiderman, the artist’s moniker can still be spotted in dozens of vertigo-inducing spots across the British capital.
After several run-ins with police for his daredevil antics, 2005 marked a turning point in Panik’s career. ‘It’s a democratic and non-elitist,” says Panik. “Of course, I loved the whole experience of painting at night and getting your stuff across the city, but it is also the fact that your work is seen by so many people. But, as I found out, you can’t always be doing it.”
Instead Panik embraced large-scale murals and studio work which have taken his art in a new direction. He began working with quirky characters created in a distinctive abstract style which bears a clear influence from his years of painting on the streets. Many of his works use bright, clashing colours and give a sense of frenetic energy no doubt inspired by working on the dynamic London graffiti scene.
In recent years Panik’s work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Amsterdam and New York. In 2017 he was invited by Banksy to stay at Palestine’s Walled Off Hotel. Here Panik painted the 100ft long “Stand Taller Than Walls” mural along the wall with Israel along with fellow ATG crew member and street artist Jan Francis.