Studio Giftig Portrait Paintings

Studio Giftig is the name for the artist duo Niels van Swaemen, born in 1981 in Eindhoven and Kaspar van Leek, born in 1983 in Philipsburg. They came into contact with each other in 2007, at which time both individuals were active in street art for some time. From 2007 the first cooperation projects were picked up and a vacant warehouse served as the basis for their studio. Within this warehouse, there was a storage room for toxic substances and chemicals, in this storage room they kept their paint and spray cans and the name Studio Giftig was born. At the start of the collaboration in 2007, one was still studying at the art academy and the other was working as a graphic designer. As a result, the projects were realized by the duo in the evenings and during the weekends. Because of the great interest, there was not enough time to be able to pick up all the projects and in 2012 the duo decided to fully devote themselves to murals. In the following years, the duo developed a common painting style, with which they became known through their highly detailed realistic murals. In addition to the quality of the paintings, the own visual language of Giftig has the characteristic element that all images are autonomously designed. Recognizable by the process in which they work is the way in which they translate their own personal concepts by photographing the objects and models themselves, to create total autonomy within their visual language as a starting point for their paintings. Currently, Giftig has managed to develop their own visual language within urban art, with which they can perform their autonomous work both in-house and for galleries and prominent clients.