The warped and wonderful characters of Paul Waak realised with jarring colour matches

Date
22 September 2016

German illustrator Paul Waak creates weird and wonderful work with warped characteristics. His work is often a combination of jarring colour matches and humorous content created using digital, print and 3D techniques.

A particular stand out project from Paul’s portfolio is Vertex Maximus a series of works elaborating an A to Z. “To every letter of the alphabet you will find one topic on one page” explains Paul, “ Vertex Maximus means ‘very big head’ so the book is sort of new thought lexicon which plays with topic tightening and an inversion on image-text proportion. Every page includes a definition of the topic and three to seven interesting short texts on the illustrated content.” Each print interprets and reshapes varied topics from crystal meth to youtube in a comic format.

Earlier this year Paul also had his first solo show, Bulletproof Glass, which exhibited 3D interpretations of his illustrations. The exhibition took over a space creating “a room scenario for mystic scene of urban transgression limits. The installation comprised of eight styrodur sculptures and 3 enamel paintings."

More recently Paul has been organising Total Sellout an exhibition in his home of Berlin from 11th to 13th November which has previously taken place in London, Dresden and Leipzig. Described by Paul to be, “an unconventional art sale and exhibition, the mandate of the event is to give people the opportunity to own artworks by established artists at an unusually affordable price for one weekend.” Exhibitors include a wealth of fresh artists such as Gabriel Alcala, Jay Wright and Kyle Platts.

Above

Paul Waak: Vertex Maximus

Above

Paul Waak: Vertex Maximus

Above

Paul Waak: Vertex Maximus

Above

Paul Waak: Superpaper

Above

Paul Waak: Bulletproof Glass

Above

Paul Waak: Bulletproof Glass

Share Article

Further Info

About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.