DTAGNO
* date and location of birth unknown
* lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Counting among the perhaps most progressive urban artists in Berlin is DTAGNO. Since the 1980s he has become an essential player in the urban art scene in Germany’s capital. He has long since enriched and expanded the content of the tags and throw-ups of classic graffiti, which are more or less known for their lack of content, and has repeatedly sought to explore the textuality of graffiti writing. What fascinates him now as much as ever is the composition of the letters, which appear almost pictorial in his works, fostering a poetry of script that almost even appears figurative. This is described by the artist as such: “I paint letters and write figures.” In the process, his style has taken on aspects of Chinese calligraphy, American Abstract Expressionism, as well as the so-called “German formula.” DTAGNO’s working methods are also very unique: his one-liner calligraphy is created in one single flowing movement that is, on the one hand, enacted with great precision and control but which, on the other hand, also reflects a meditative and organic stroke. Therefore, writing for DTAGNO becomes an inscribed expression of the subconscious that exists even without phonetic import, engendering fascination.
