MAFIA _ TABAK

It all started for me with doing graffiti in 2006. At that time
I was not thinking at all about doing art or any kind of stuff
I do nowadays. It was simply fun and entering a totally new
world. By finishing my graphic Design school in 2009 I realized
that I am not fitting in any kind of regular job or daily driven
Joblife. All I was doing at that time  was  graffiti and I started to transforming it slowly away from its traditional form (outlines, seconds, highlights…). I realize nowadays that it was important
to know the basics and my position in that game before I started to create my own style.
By doing that I began to see myself also as an Artist and started doing drawings, canvases and getting
interested in the idea of living from my stuff. I separated and separate till now graffiti from any kind
of art stuff. It just exists on trains, freights, abandoned areas and in the streets and does not need any
kind of explanation because it is what it is. All my studio stuff (canvases, installations, drawings, prints)
are just another way of expressing myself, which is of course all influenced by my graffiti background.
Especially nowadays I try to get my spontaneous way by working on walls also in my studio work but
in a totally other visual language. I try to adopt some of the cliches and forms and reinterpret that in new
contextes.

 I moved 2009 to vienna and I started at the academy of fine arts in 2010. To be honest I started there
because I wanted to get the financial support from the state. Beside that I knew that it could be also
interesting to meet probably new people and learn from them as well from some subjects
I did not know yet. The third and most interesting thing was that by being on the university you get
a lot of time to think about your work and even more important, you get never again in life so much
time where you can just focus on your work without having financial trouble. So I met good people
which became kinda family to me and I realized with them exhibitions and three issues of our book
project, called „ein Wandblatt aus Wien“. Through the university we had the opportunity to experiment with
numerous printing processes, putting them to use in our Book project and zines.
Beside that I was not fascinated at all by the university and their backward way of thinking about art and stuff.
So I quit university in 2016 because I did not get any financial support from the state anymore and I basically had no time
for getting all my university stuff together for a diploma because I was stucked in other projects.
If it was clever or not, I do not know yet, but I did not  feel  appropriate to that kinda art scene so I wanted to make
my own way through. I feel now different about it and know that I have to play in some ways the game but by dropping
out, it gave me a lot of energy as well and I could create and develope  my current visual language and my way of working.

I would describe my work nowadays as ironic. How I use materials, choose motives, topics, colors, references and
even how I shape forms is actually ironic. I guess i want to express my sense  of humor and the fact that I can not take
painting too serious. On the other hand the beholder should feel awkward, confused and surprised at the same time.
I love to express this kinda stuff in my totally own visual language and mix it up with some referential motives which have barely nothing
to do with my drawing style and bring them in the end together. Both parts are important for me and my work and in combination with my
Graffiti background (I am still doing it quite frequently) they form a tension which I define as important for my work. I also try to get more
into installation work recently and try to mix some different materials together to point out to something I want to show or to confuse people even more
when I put for example a canvas on a canvas. Working on installations  gives me the opportunity to create a  special atmosphere and
let people  actually go into my work on exhibitions. Most of the time my topics are ironic or at least kinda funny and should give a little insight
of my daily lifeststyle as a full time artist.