ELKI (UK)
During the early 2000’s, tags and stencils started appearing in Aberdeen city centre: a policewoman, DJ and Bag Piper all painted in the same vein as Banksy’s early work. These pieces were created by Elki, with some – such as the now infamous ‘Bag Piper’ – long established as local landmarks.
The level of detail in his stencil-based works as well as his dedication to putting art on the streets (at a time when do so without permission carried heavy punishments) has elevated Elki to almost mythical status across the North East of Scotland.
Although his style and execution may have changed since those early days in Aberdeen, Elki continues to produce work with reference to numerous subcultures associated with street art, graffiti, sneaker and DJ culture with the occasional nod to Scottish heritage too.
Over the past 15 years he has developed a unique, photorealistic style using hand-cut stencils – no mean feat considering the number of layers required for each piece – to produce some of the best stencil artworks seen in Europe.
