By Emma Regolini
March 20th, 2020
You may recognise her multi-coloured abstract murals from around the world. MadC is the unstoppable female artist dominating the traditionally male oriented arena of graffiti and street art today.
MadC, also known as Claudia Walde is a German born graffiti writer and muralist. Carrying a degree in graphic design with a Master’s stamp, MadC began her career in graffiti long before her adult years.
Completing her first graffiti piece at 16 years of age, MadC went on to reach early international acclaim in 2010 with her piece, known as the ‘700 Wall.’ The wall covered 700 square metres along the train line between Berlin and Halle and took 4 months to complete. According to most sources, the painting is still the large graffiti mural created by a single person.
Following her success from the ‘700 Wall,’ MadC’s style and approach slowly began to change direction. Departing from detailed and thematic storytelling, her work and artistic path diversified into gallery shows, larger scale murals and a deeper analysis of the pillars of traditional graffiti.
What has been acknowledged as a shift in ‘artistic strategy,’ saw MadC take a closer look at wild-style graffiti, dynamic lines and bold motion and colours. Her murals could now be described as having placed a magnifying lens over aggressive lettering, angles and shapes to give clarity to a different world of expression, beauty and art.
MadC’s focus on magnified brush strokes and layered transparencies give way to a liquid form. Her murals spread across the world wash the faces of multi-storey walls in an effortless way.
Bridging the divide between street art and the gallery world, MadC presented her first show in 2015 named, ‘Night and Day.’ The series explored the relationship between night and day and the role it plays in the life and activities of a graffiti artist.
More recently, MadC presented a series of works, ‘Dialogue’ throughout the gardens of the Brenners Park Hotel in Germany Each sculptural painting has a direct link to the hotel and their placement in the garden. The painting, ‘Indigo Coelin’ (centre below), represents the fresh breeze, which floats through the restaurant. Elements of pink add sweetness while the gold lines draw meaning from the gold elements inside the hotel.
Depending on the light, the gold changes throughout the day, similar to the light, which reflects and moves through the restaurant.
MadC’s magnified, abstract style brings a fresh and vibrant energy to the world of traditional graffiti. Claudia’s roots in graphic design and teenage years honing her craft has enabled her to build, develop and refine a recognisable style which she is renowned for today.
