Martin Whatson (b. 1984) is a Norwegian born and based stencil artist. While studying Art and Graphic design at Westerdals School of Communication, Oslo, he discovered stencils and the urban art scene.

Martin creates unique stencil scenes, with a message signifying peace and love, yet, packed with bold statements that say a lot about the world today. He is an emotional artist that seeks to transmit feelings and with a great taste for aesthetics and the beauty of images and color. He has a continuous urge to search for beauty in what is commonly dismissed as ugly, out of style or simply left behind. He looks for inspirations in people, city landscapes, old buildings, graffiti, posters and decaying walls. 

This interest for decay has helped develop his style, motives and composition and he enjoys creating either unity or conflict between materials, backgrounds, motives and human intervention. His artistic expression started more political, but has developed into a more subtle expression blending graffiti, stencil art and decay together. 

Inspired by artist like Jose Parlá and Cy Twombly. His abstract graffiti and stencils are a mix of urban scenes showing the development of a walls lifetime. He use grey tones as a basis but add’s vibrant colors to break the monochrome concrete expression and bring a splash of life to his motives.

Since his artistic debut in 2004, he has had several solo shows and participated in many group exhibitions, both nationally and in internationally. We can find his work shown to the public in urban murals in cities of his homeland, like Stavanger or Oslo but he has also crossed his country frontiers to other places like Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. 

During Art Basel 2016 Whatson created a Massive Mural named “Sweeper” for the Raw Project at the Edina M. Hartner Elementary School located in Wynwood, FL. We stopped by during Basel and took these photos the Day after Martin completed his newest wall.

You can more of Martin Whatson pieces at GallArt.com