Herr von Bias

“To understand my work, you need to know where I come from. I grew up in the East Berlin suburbs. If you drive through Marzahn today, everything is beautiful and green and the houses are renovated and brightly painted. The early ‘90s, on the other hand, were characterized by grey dreariness. The place was a huge concrete desert. After the euphoria of the reunification faded, mass unemployment, violence and shattered dreams remained. It was around ’93 or ’94 when I noticed the first splashes of color on our Plattenbau buildings. Some strangely shaped, colorful letters that suddenly adorned the facades captivated me. Once, we saw a graffiti sprayer. I watched him for hours, totally fascinated. Of course, we also dusted off his empty cans. Later, we got ourselves a few cans and started spraying all over the place. This subversive, anarchistic idea of graffiti had grabbed me. If the world is too grey for you, then make it colorful.”

Herr von Bias

In celebration of ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ 20th anniversary, HRVB applies his signature colour candy style to this pop-culture infused mural. With an almost psychedelic palette, Spongebob is taken to new sensory heights, taking us all for a ride on Gary the Snail.The mural was created above Berlin’s famous ‘Lido’ music venue, in the Wrangelkiez district of Kreuzberg, known for its ‘counterculture’ arts and entertainment scene.