For this year's edition of ARTMUC, we present a selection of figurative positions featuring works by Fin DAC, SKIO, Alexis Stephens and Guy Denning.At the centre of the presentation is the human figure: not as a classical likeness, but as a projection surface for perception, transformation and inner states. Moving between urban art, contemporary figuration and painterly gesture, the works explore how identity is constructed in the interplay of body, space and image.The four artistic positions open up different approaches. Fin DAC develops a highly aesthetic, precise visual language in which cultural references and traditions condense into a distinct form of identity. At its core are strong, self-assured female figures who radiate presence and poise.SKIO's works emerge from purely analogue painting, yet their visual effect recalls the logic of digital and AI-generated imagery. Shaped by a reduced, Bauhaus-inspired formal vocabulary, the compositions take on an almost otherworldly quality, reflecting a perception increasingly defined by hybrid realities.In the works of Alexis Stephens, the body itself becomes a vehicle for movement, energy and decision. Gestures appear as frozen moments of a dynamic process in which control and impulse are present at once. Guy Denning, by contrast, reduces the figure to a raw, immediate presence. His works address the human condition with a directness that oscillates between vulnerability and resistance.Opening Hours ARTMUC May 2026 Friday, 1 May 2026 / 11 am – 7 pm Saturday, 2 May 2026 / 11 am – 7 pm Sunday, 3 May 2026 / 11 am – 6 pmGETTING THERE MTC Locations / Ingolstädter Straße 45-47 / 80807 MunichParking: The venue offers more than 1,000 parking spaces on site.Public transport: U-Bahn line U2 – Frankfurter Ring station (approx. 7-minute walk to the venue)

We have been working with Guy Denning for more than ten years, showing his work in numerous group and thematic exhibitions and following the development of his artistic practice. The Idea of Her is his first solo exhibition at Pretty Portal since Shooting Angels ten years ago.The ArtistGuy Denning's work has long operated at the intersection of traditional painting and contemporary urban art, drawing equally on the European pictorial tradition and on political urgency. His paintings and drawings are marked by an expressive, often fragmented figuration, combined with stencilled and collaged text, abrasion, overpainting and deliberate disruption. In Denning's work, identity never appears fixed or complete, but fragile, provisional and in constant flux.The ExhibitionThe works shown in this exhibition mark a particularly concentrated and intimate phase of his practice. The drawings and paintings revolve around memory, imagination and projection. They deliberately reject the conventions of classical portraiture, approaching their figures instead through suggestion, movement and emotional condensation. Here, closeness arises not through likeness, but through an inner stance.The Image in the MindThe Idea of Her is an exhibition about the image we carry in our minds, about what remains when likeness and certainty are no longer enough. It marks the beginning of a body of work that deliberately positions itself between personal experience and artistic openness.The following text by Guy Denning offers insight into the origins of these works. Intended as a personal dedication, it is reproduced here unchanged."This exhibition is dedicated to my partner, companion, defender and lover of thirty-two years, who passed away shortly before Christmas. Colleen was the most beautiful, strongest and funniest woman I have ever had the privilege to know.Ever since we met, I tried to persuade her to let me paint a formal portrait of her. But as she didn't even like the idea of being photographed, she always laughed and declined.Last year I asked her again, and she finally agreed, on one condition: the portrait had to be about the 'idea' of her and inspired by the artists she most admired. It was very specifically not to be a traditional likeness.She also liked my earlier body of work based on the idea of 'imaginary' portraits and self-portraits, in which we, like autobiographers, construct the comforting fictions we would like others to believe of us.So over the last year before her death, she gave me her thoughts and ideas for this portrait: the life stories of strengths and weaknesses, of heroes and villains, of longings and dreams.Much of the beginning of this work can be seen here, at Pretty Portal.Colleen found me and saved me; she protected me from the world, and often from myself.She will always be my captain, my compass and my ship. I will miss her by my side on this crazy journey forever."— Guy DenningWe are deeply honoured to host this exhibition and to present these works, acrylic and oil paintings on canvas as well as drawings in charcoal and chalk, in this particularly personal and meaningful context.

The term tipping point is something we encounter more and more often in everyday life. It is mostly used in connection with the impact of human activity on nature and the climate. The word also comes up again and again in discussions about changes in how we live together as a society, or about shifts in the political climate towards the extremes. Tipping points are described as thresholds beyond which change becomes irreversible and drastic. We find them in art as well: states from which a work fundamentally changes its meaning or its visual appearance.VERMIBUSVermibus treats photographs with solvents, altering their aesthetics and, inevitably, the way they are perceived. Once set in motion, the chemical process must be carefully dosed and then stopped at precisely the right moment to achieve the result the artist is after. The Spanish artist has been active for many years as a so-called adbuster. In protest against the beauty ideal propagated by advertising, perverted to the point of perfection and allowing happiness only as a consequence of supposed appearance, he removes advertising posters, alters their motifs in his studio and then hangs them back in the very same place. Today, VERMIBUS creates his own photographs, processes them using the same technique and explores the thresholds at which images fundamentally change their aesthetics and message.GUY DENNINGWe also know tipping points in our emotional lives: moments in which a mood suddenly transforms a situation completely. Even before we are fully aware of a growing feeling, it is often already legible in our facial expression and posture. The English artist Guy Denning seeks out these expressions and makes them the subject of his work. With his distinctive, highly expressive painting technique, he captures the emotions of his protagonists, at times drawing them out with just a few incisive strokes. Guy Denning's works combine traditional and contemporary approaches to painting. He uses charcoal and chalk, oil paint, but also spray paint. Punk-inspired text, inserted as collage or stencilled, adds a further narrative layer. His visual language and aesthetic, interwoven with the political narrative that runs through his oeuvre, lend his works an unusual power.Exhibition: 15 November 2024 – 17 January 2025Opening: Thursday, 15 November, 7 pmPretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 Düsseldorf

Nomen est omen: STENCILS ONLY presents artists for whom working with stencils plays a central role.A Technique with HistoryThe stencil is one of the oldest image-making techniques of all, and at the same time one of the most defining in urban art. In the early 1980s, Blek le Rat took it to the streets of Paris and established it as an art form in its own right. Later, the legendary Banksy helped it achieve worldwide popularity. Today, countless exciting artists work with stencils, taking their interventions to the streets and creating artworks in public space.Precision and ImmediacyThe appeal of the technique lies in a contradiction. Cutting a stencil is a slow, precise process, often taking many hours and several layers. Spraying, by contrast, takes seconds. The stencil thus combines meticulous craftsmanship with the speed of the street. Every work is reproducible, yet remains unique, as the surface, the application of paint and the surroundings change the image each time.Eight PositionsIn this edition of the STENCILS ONLY show, we present new works by eight artistic positions that demonstrate how diverse this technique can be: from pointed social critique and poetic snapshots to richly symbolic visual worlds.FAKE Dutch artist FAKE is considered Amsterdam's best-known stencil artist, both on the street and on canvas. His vividly coloured works draw on icons of everyday life and pop culture, slightly provocative and always with a healthy dose of humour and irony. Among his best-known pieces is the award-winning "Super Nurse", a tribute to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Guy Denning British artist Guy Denning combines a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired element: collaged and stencilled text that adds a further, often political layer of narrative to his figures. His works are held in several public collections, including the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna.Jana & JS The Austrian-French duo has been painting together since 2006 and is known for multicoloured stencil works based on their own photographs. Jana & JS combine portraits with urban landscapes and architecture, deliberately choosing old materials that speak of the passage of time. After years in Madrid and Paris, they now live in Salzburg.kurznachzehn German artist kurznachzehn discovered her technique in 2011 through nostalgic family photos from the 1950s. She first sprays her multi-layered stencils onto paper and then pastes them up in the urban landscape. For her gallery works, she also uses wooden panels and found metal.L.E.T. The initials stand for "Les Enfants Terribles". The French-born artist has been active on the street since 1992 and has shaped the cityscape of his adopted hometown, Düsseldorf, making him one of the street artists of the very first hour. He pairs his mostly black-and-white figures with charmingly provocative messages that expose the shortcomings of our consumer and fun-driven society with a wink.Monkeybird The Bordeaux duo, made up of Temor ("Monkey") and Blow ("Bird"), has been working together since 2012. Their entirely hand-cut stencils depict metaphysical architectures inspired by geometry, mechanics, cosmology and astronomy. The monkey and the bird represent the two sides of human nature: the realist and the dreamer.Otto Schade Born in Chile, the artist also known as "Osch" began his career as an architect and urban sculptor. He has lived in London since 2006, where his architectural understanding of space led him to develop his distinctive "ribbon" style. The intertwining bands shape his subjects and give them an almost sculptural presence.seiLeise Behind seiLeise is Cologne-based artist Tim Ossege, who uses stencils and other urban art techniques to comment on social developments and world events. His pointed motifs provoke thought without wagging a finger. He is also regarded as a pioneer of reverse graffiti, using stencils and a sandblaster to clean motifs out of dirty walls."STENCILS ONLY"Exhibition 2 December 2022 – 10 February 2023Opening Friday, 2 December 2022, 7 pmPretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 Düsseldorf

Angels stepping from the beyond into the here and now, dancers staging themselves as they are carried by waves and frequencies, individuals testing their limits: in Passing Through, we encounter figures in transit. They move through space and time in a very particular way, are on a path of self-discovery and, in constant transformation, grapple with transience.Two Positions in DialogueGuy Denning and Alexis "Bust" Stephens both place the human figure at the centre of their work. In this artistic dialogue, Guy Denning, one of the early exponents of urban art, meets Alexis "Bust" Stephens, who has caught the attention of connoisseurs and collectors, particularly in Paris, under the pseudonym "Bust the Drip". Both artists are distinguished by a highly vivid line. With their very different painting techniques, they manage to unite diffusion and dissolution with meticulous detail within a single image in an unmistakable way.Charcoal and Chalk, Brush and Spray PaintGuy Denning works primarily in charcoal and chalk. He is a master at depicting the expression and emotions of his protagonists precisely and palpably with just a few strokes. Alexis "Bust" Stephens paints with brush and spray paint, capturing the movement of his models. His lines trace entire sequences of motion and seem to dance with the figures across the canvas. On show are works on paper and canvas."Passing Through" Guy Denning | Alexis "Bust" StephensExhibition 22 October – 26 November 2021 Tuesday – Friday, 2 – 7 pmPretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 DüsseldorfAlexis "Bust" StephensAlexis "Bust" Stephens was born in Paris in 1983 to a French mother and a Jamaican father. He discovered his talent for dance and painting early on and began his artistic journey within urban culture. His hip-hop and breakdance performances quickly drew attention, and he was invited with various crews to competitions and jams across Europe. Above all, however, he preferred to leave his mark in public space, which offered him complete freedom of expression.While experimenting with different painting techniques, he soon connected with the vast Parisian street art and graffiti scene. From the outset, he was determined to combine dance and painting in his style, his motifs and his performances. This period gave rise to his alias "Bust the Drip", a combination of the dance slang "to bust a move" and the "drips" of running paint that often result from his technique.He later joined the artist collective Bang Crew, whose members come from dance, painting, video, photography and music. The synergies within the collective enabled him to develop large-scale projects both in France and abroad. During this time, he realised that he wanted to focus more on painting, while keeping dance as a motif and as part of his performances.At the heart of his artistic vision lies his love of physical expression, movement and gesture. He likes to imagine the body as the result of organised waves: "We are not made of much, and yet everything pulses within us." Inspired by Abstract Expressionism and graffiti, he translates the movement and energy he senses into his works. Alexis lives and breathes the idea of the grand geste and of Abstract Expressionism. In his artistic process, he combines painterly technique with instinct. His lively line work reflects waves and frequencies, creating a cycle of rhythm and colour. His brushstrokes, born of gesture and expression, initially appear abstract and disconcerting. The further a work develops, the more clearly they take the form of his dancing protagonists.Guy DenningGuy Denning was born in North Somerset in 1965. He has been obsessed with visual art since childhood and started painting in oils at the age of eleven, after receiving a set of old paints from a relative who had grown bored with them. Throughout the 1980s, his applications to study painting at degree level were repeatedly unsuccessful, but he continued painting while studying art history with the Open University and learning painting technique from older painters he knew in the West of England. From 1992, he exhibited across Britain, and since 2007 he has also exhibited in the United States, Germany, Italy and France. His paintings have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is held in several public collections, including the Politics Department of the University of Bristol, the Political Science Department of the University of Galway and the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna.Guy Denning's work combines a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired twist of embedded collaged and stencilled text. This aesthetic, blended with a political narrative, has earned Denning a loyal following among collectors of urban art."Urban art is not a new phenomenon. People have been declaring their presence, their humour, their fears and their anger in the streets for as long as there have been streets for it to be seen in. It's the most democratic form of art; it's a medium that is available to any that feel the need to use it. With the acceptance and celebration of graffiti culture in the twentieth century it has come to a point where it is now sited behind the streets, in fashionable galleries. Yes, fashions change, but don't ever think that the graffiti will fade away. That particular writing has always been on the wall." – Guy Denning

Bestranged combines two words that aptly describe the past year: "strange" and "estranged". For months, we lived through a situation that was new and unsettling for all of us. We kept our distance, wore masks, avoided encounters and, to some extent, drifted apart from one another. What remained were feelings for which there were often no words.Art from LockdownThe exhibition presents a selection of works that reflect this time. They tell of people in an exceptional situation, of isolation and estrangement, of covered faces and the longing for closeness. Eight urban art positions have engaged with the experiences of recent months in very different ways: sometimes ironic, sometimes poetic, sometimes with oppressive directness.Get an impression of the exhibition in our video.FAKE Dutch artist FAKE is considered Amsterdam's best-known stencil artist, both on the street and on canvas. His vividly coloured works draw on icons of everyday life and pop culture, slightly provocative and always with a healthy dose of humour and irony. Among his best-known pieces is the award-winning "Super Nurse", a tribute to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guy Denning British artist Guy Denning combines a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired element: collaged and stencilled text that adds a further, often political layer of narrative to his figures. His works are held in several public collections, including the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna.Jana & JS The Austrian-French duo has been painting together since 2006 and is known for multicoloured stencil works based on their own photographs. Jana & JS combine portraits with urban landscapes and architecture, deliberately choosing old materials that speak of the passage of time. After years in Madrid and Paris, they now live in Salzburg.Natalia Rak The Polish artist graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in 2012 and has been creating large-scale murals around the world since 2011. Her luminous, mostly female figures draw on folklore and fairy tales and have a surreal quality. Her mural Legend of the Giants in Białystok, showing a girl caring for a real tree, was included in the street art series issued by the Polish Post.Otto Schade Born in Chile, the artist also known as "Osch" began his career as an architect and urban sculptor. He has lived in London since 2006, where his architectural understanding of space led him to develop his distinctive "ribbon" style. The intertwining bands shape his subjects and give them an almost sculptural presence.Shai Dahan Born in Haifa in 1979, Shai Dahan grew up in Los Angeles, where he started out as a graffiti writer at the age of 14. He has lived in Sweden since 2010 and gained recognition there with his reinterpretation of the Dala horse, the traditional Swedish wooden horse. In 2019, he painted what was then Sweden's largest mural in Borås.Sokar Uno Born in Gotha in 1987, the Berlin-based artist found his way to art through the graffiti scene in the late 1990s. His partly realistic, often dark figures look as if they had been broken apart and reassembled, like fragments of a bronze sculpture. Self-taught, he processes current events as well as personal experiences and states of mind in his work.STF Moscato Born in 1976, Marseille artist Stéphane Moscato, aka STF, is a child of punk. For many years, he has been peeling entire layers of posters off the walls of his city and mounting them onto canvas in his studio. Using stencils and spray paint, he creates unique works guided by these street fragments, through which a social and political stance subtly shines.

Dancing with yourself can be deeply lonely, or a sign of being completely at one with yourself. People today know both.People of Our TimeGuy Denning and John Wentz depict people of the present day. On the one hand, there are self-promoters who, in self-imposed isolation, strive to live up to the illusion of a social media community: people willing to reshape their personality to the point of losing their sense of self. On the other hand, there are characters full of self-confidence who, in a sensed, almost ecstatic connection with the whole, embody strength and independence. A dance on the edge of a volcano, a dance with oneself.Two SignaturesBoth artists focus on the depiction of people. With their very different painting techniques, they manage to unite meticulous detail with diffusion and dissolution in an unmistakable way. John Wentz, who paints primarily in oil, renders parts of his portraits with a photorealistic quality, while leaving other areas roughly sketched with broad brushstrokes. Guy Denning works primarily in charcoal and chalk and is a master at depicting the expression and emotions of his protagonists precisely and palpably with just a few strokes."Dancing with Myself" An exhibition of works by Guy Denning and John WentzOpening Friday, 27 September 2019, 7 – 10 pmExhibition 27 September – 31 October 2019 Monday – Friday, 11 am – 7 pm and by appointmentPretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 DüsseldorfJohn WentzJohn Wentz is a contemporary painter whose work explores the human figure and its nature. He experiments with a combination of classical and modern painting techniques, aiming to reduce what he depicts to its most essential elements: composition, colour and texture, as only painting can.John Wentz was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of six, when he first discovered Batman and Spider-Man comics. For years, he copied them panel by panel, laying the foundations early on for his later work as a muralist, poster artist and freelance illustrator. Having perfected his skills with the spray can, he decided to turn to fine art and to work with classical techniques such as oil painting. Since then, he has shown his work in three solo exhibitions in San Francisco and in numerous group exhibitions in the US and abroad. His work has been widely published and has received several awards.Guy DenningGuy Denning was born in North Somerset in 1965. He has been obsessed with visual art since childhood and started painting in oils at the age of eleven, after receiving a set of old paints from a relative who had grown bored with them. Throughout the 1980s, his applications to study painting at degree level were repeatedly unsuccessful, but he continued painting while studying art history with the Open University and learning painting technique from older painters he knew in the West of England. From 1992, he exhibited across Britain, and since 2007 he has also exhibited in the United States, Germany, Italy and France. His paintings have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is held in several public collections, including the Politics Department of the University of Bristol, the Political Science Department of the University of Galway and the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna.Guy Denning's work combines a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired twist of embedded collaged and stencilled text. This aesthetic, blended with a political narrative, has earned Denning a loyal following among collectors of urban art."Urban art is not a new phenomenon. People have been declaring their presence, their humour, their fears and their anger in the streets for as long as there have been streets for it to be seen in. It's the most democratic form of art; it's a medium that is available to any that feel the need to use it. With the acceptance and celebration of graffiti culture in the twentieth century it has come to a point where it is now sited behind the streets, in fashionable galleries. Yes, fashions change, but don't ever think that the graffiti will fade away. That particular writing has always been on the wall." – Guy Denning

It all begins with a drawing. A pencil, a little ink, a piece of charcoal or a marker are all it takes to bring entire worlds to life: worlds full of mechanical animals, battered robots and people whose emotions are revealed in just a few strokes.Three Draughtsmen, Three WorldsFor our last exhibition of the year, we are devoting ourselves entirely to drawing. On show are works in pencil, ink, charcoal and marker by Guy Denning and Pixelpancho, two internationally renowned artists, and by ARDIF, a young French artist who is attracting more and more attention, especially in Paris.ARDIFARDIF is a young French artist who explores the mechanics behind living matter. In his drawings, he mostly transforms animals into mechanical creatures that are split in two: one half is rendered naturalistically, while the other turns into a curious machine of intricate architecture. This juxtaposition creates a particular tension and invites close inspection. ARDIF enlarges his drawings and brings them to the streets as paste-ups. In Paris, his half-mechanical animals have become an integral part of the cityscape.Guy DenningGuy Denning was born in North Somerset in 1965. He has been obsessed with visual art since childhood and started painting in oils at the age of eleven, after receiving a set of old paints from a relative who had grown bored with them. Throughout the 1980s, his applications to study painting at degree level were repeatedly unsuccessful, but he continued painting while studying art history with the Open University and learning painting technique from older painters he knew in the West of England. From 1992, he exhibited across Britain, and since 2007 he has also exhibited in the United States, Germany, Italy and France. His paintings have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is held in several public collections, including the Politics Department of the University of Bristol, the Political Science Department of the University of Galway and the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna.Guy Denning's work combines a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired twist of embedded collaged and stencilled text. This aesthetic, blended with a political narrative, has earned Denning a loyal following among collectors of urban art.PixelpanchoPixelpancho has a special bond with robots: they are the ever-recurring theme of his work."I am driven by a forgotten world, hidden beneath a thick layer of dust and dirt. There are robots there, creations of humankind, battered and worn, a symbiosis of the organic and the inorganic, their bodies of rusty iron falling apart. Full of dreams, desires and hopes." (translated)In his surreal visual world, humans, puppets and robots merge into images alluding to major commercial brands, superheroes and famous pop icons, all of them subject to constant change and threatened by decay. Pixelpancho convinces not only through his striking motifs, but also through his unique style, which draws on many and varied sources.Born in Italy, he studied at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia. On his many travels, he never missed an opportunity to take part in festivals and show his work in exhibitions. Pixelpancho is regarded as one of the new big names of the Italian urban art scene, which gradually developed around artists such as Blu and Ericailcane, the Fame Festival and Studio Chromie."Punks, Robots & Angels" ARDIF · Guy Denning · PixelpanchoOpening Thursday, 7 December 2017 Please note: this time, the opening takes place on a Thursday.Exhibition 8 December 2017 – 26 January 2018 Monday – Friday, 11 am – 7 pm and by appointmentPretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 Düsseldorf

"Urban art is not a new phenomenon. People have been declaring their presence, their humour, their fears and their anger in the streets for as long as there have been streets for it to be seen in. It's the most democratic form of art; it's a medium that is available to any that feel the need to use it. With the acceptance and celebration of graffiti culture in the twentieth century it has come to a point where it is now sited behind the streets, in fashionable galleries. Yes, fashions change, but don't ever think that the graffiti will fade away. That particular writing has always been on the wall." – Guy DenningBetween Tradition and PunkIn his solo exhibition Shooting Angels, Guy Denning presents works that combine a traditional painterly style with a contemporary, punk-inspired twist of embedded collaged and stencilled text. This aesthetic, blended with the political narrative that runs through his work, has earned him a loyal following among collectors and lovers of urban art.About the ArtistGuy Denning was born in North Somerset in 1965. He has been obsessed with visual art since childhood and started painting in oils at the age of eleven, after receiving a set of old paints from a relative who had grown bored with them. Throughout the 1980s, his applications to study painting at degree level were repeatedly unsuccessful, but he continued painting while studying art history with the Open University and learning painting technique from older painters he knew in the West of England. From 1992, he exhibited across Britain, and since 2007 he has also exhibited in the United States, Germany, Italy and France. His paintings have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His work is held in several public collections, including the Politics Department of the University of Bristol, the Political Science Department of the University of Galway and the MAGI'900 Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna."Shooting Angels" Guy DenningOpening Friday, 17 April 2015, 7 pmExhibition 20 April – 22 May 2015Pretty Portal Brunnenstraße 12 40223 Düsseldorf

From Painting to Stencil: the show FACE OFF at Pretty Portal, presents different perspectives from international Urban Artists, on the topic portrait. Ben Slow C215 David Monllor Fin DAC Guy Denning Natalia Rak Onur Dinc OrticanoodlesWolfgang Krell Ausstellung 14.6. - 20.07. Vernissage 14.6. 19 – 22h