A stage curtain opens. Behind it, a buck-toothed rabbit bathes in a huge vessel resembling a coffee cup, tentacles curl out of the foam, a little man in a hat balances on the rim, and at the bottom a small figure with a box-shaped head looks out at the audience. Art Nouveau ornaments frame the scene, and beneath it are the words “From Stupid to Cute!” This is how the invitation welcomes guests to the Grotesque Theatre Café.
A Viennese café full of creatures
In February we present three street artists from Vienna: Nychos, Miss Isa and El Lasso. They transform the gallery into a colourful, bizarre coffee house. Their illustrative compositions are full of fantastical beings and creatures and tell of a quirky, at times abysmal world. It brings to mind John Irving’s story The Pension Grillparzer, in which a Viennese guesthouse is populated by strange guests.
On view are works in acrylic, spray paint and ink on paper, wood and canvas.
About the artists
Nychos was born in Bruck an der Mur in Styria in 1982 and has lived in Vienna since 2004. As a teenager he already wanted to become a comic artist, and at 17 he discovered graffiti. A self-confessed fan of cartoons and comics, he draws exceptionally fast, has a graphic style and, with his tireless creative drive, is one of the best-known graffiti artists in Austria.
Miss Isa loves kitschy, grotesque and funny things. Her characters look just like that: sometimes they seem quite cute, at other times they look as if they want to scratch each other’s eyes out, depending on the situation and the colour chosen.
El Lasso lets his positive outlook shine through in his art. Sweet figures, monsters and character heads, which he calls “G’sichterl und Maxerl” (Viennese dialect for “little faces and little fellows”), populate his worlds.
“Grotesque Theatre Café”
Nychos, Miss Isa, El Lasso
Vernissage: Thursday, 5 February 2009, 7 – 11 pm
Exhibition: from 5 to 29 February 2009
Pretty Portal, Brunnenstraße 12, 40223 Düsseldorf
Note (2026): From around 2011 Nychos developed the style for which he is now known internationally: dissections, cross-sections and X-ray views of animals and pop culture icons. His large-scale murals revealing the anatomy of living creatures can be seen around the world. In Vienna he runs the studio and art space Rabbit Eye Movement.
