Nuart Aberdeen 2021 Artists

Helen Bur, UK

The first artist to be announced as part of the line-up is renowned UK artist, Helen Bur, whose dual mural disappeared as part of the demolition of Greyfriars House on Aberdeen’s Gallowgate in late 2020. Her return to the city will see her explore the festival’s theme of “Memory and the City” as she takes on a prominent city centre wall. Wielding brush, roller and masonry paint to create larger-than-life works on walls, Bur’s work can be found across the world including in Germany, Spain, Norway and India.

Bur is one of several UK based artists who will come to the city over a six-week period to create works that explore the festival theme. Unlike previous years, when all the street art is created within a week, the production period has been extended and the artists’ time in the city will be staggered.

View more of Helen's work here.

KMG, UK

Hailing from the silver streets of Aberdeen, KMG is a Scottish based artist who has been creating character based outdoor artwork for over a decade.

Reflecting her curious nature, her work explores and confronts themes that range from the mundane to the precarious and is often of a subversive nature. Characters are used as a means of connecting with the public and engaging them in dialogue around ignored or overlooked issues that exist within society. A combination of youthful enthusiasm, tempered with a healthy smattering of defiance, imbues her work with a sarcastic and raw tone, whilst remaining playful and often raising a comforting smile.

By placing her art in public places, KMG aims to encourage the passer-by to pause in a moment of reflection and connectivity. Her work provides an avenue for communicating moments of shared vulnerability, protest or mischief.

View more of KMG's work here.

Fanakapan, UK

Fanakapan is a self taught London based street/ graffiti artist -since the early 2000’s. Fanakapan’s painted 3D effect street art of mainly balloon-based / reflective subjects will stop you in your tracks, they allow him maximum opportunity to demonstrate his superb free hand skills, use of shadow & reflective highlights to make his work seem to pop off of the surface!

What stands out most about Fanakapan’s work on the street is that beyond the immediate and overwhelmingly impressive aesthetic dynamic, the pieces usually also allude to larger messages & hint at more acute aspects of Fanakapan’s personality. Fanakapan has painted worldwide with his highly technical free hand style. His ever evolving ideas intended to amuse or entertain the thoughts of the viewer.

View more of Fanakapan's work here.

Henrik Uldalen, NO

Henrik Aarrestad Uldalen (1986) is a self-taught artist whose creative production revolves around classic figurative painting, presented in a contemporary manner. Henrik explores the dark sides of life, nihilism, existentialism, longing and loneliness, juxtaposed with fragile beauty. Though a figurative painter, his focus has always been the emotional content rather than narratives. The atmosphere in his work is often presented in a dream or limbo-like state, with elements of surrealism and expressionism.

Visit Henrik's website here and visit his Instagram here.

SNIK, UK

Internationally acclaimed artists SNIK combine the creation of hand cut, multilayered stencils with haunting, ethereal portraiture, born from a male/female dual perspective. This traditional craft, progressive ethos approach has seen the duo commissioned on walls the world over; their post industrial scenes loom large over passersby in locations as diverse as Aberdeen (Scotland), Stavanger (Norway), Miami and Hong Kong.
Away from city streets, the pair have become revered by urban contemporary art collectors in recent years, thanks to rare releases of editions that can take up to a year to produce the smaller scale and intricacy of layered stencil work requires incredibly precise cuts and careful compositional thought.The payoff, however, has proved more than worthwhile for buyers, who covet the simple aesthetics of spilling, tangled hair and floating fabrics: a modern scrutiny of pre-raphaelite sensibilities. It is that questioning, accepting narrative that SNIK pursue, and one that has captured the attention of critics, art lovers and collectors alike.

To date, SNIK has created work for

HK Walls

Nuart Aberdeen & Stavanger

Urban Nation museum facade

Urban nation one wall project

Le Mur mural project, Paris

Straat Museum, Amsterdam

Miami RAW project

Cities of hope, Manchester

Cheltenham paint festival

Rockpoint Leisure mural for Brighton Street Art regeneration project

Memorie Urbane Italy

Visit SNIK's website here.