Master – Graffiti from Serbia

Master – Graffiti from Serbia

By Arden de Raaij

Graffiti artist Master is from a part of the world where the talents are still quite undiscovered in this modern day and age: Belgrade, Serbia. But as we see and hear from Master, we ought to have a look into the graffiti and street art scene of Serbia soon. Master himself has been doing graffiti from ’97, and now creates posters, stencils and murals. I’m especially impressed by the murals which are always site-specific work, reacting on how the history of an environment has changed it.

Each mural I create is dedicated to the place it’s located

Graffiti Mural by Master, Hope, Reko - Belgrade, Serbia
Graffiti Mural by Master, Hope, Reko – Belgrade, Serbia

Master: Hi, my name is Master and I was born in Belgrade, Serbia.

My parents discovered my creativity early on in my life, as I drew on every all in the house with crayons.  I started out with graffiti in 1997. When I moved to a ghetto of Belgrado called Lekas Hill, I discovered graffiti as a phenomenon. The last five years I’ve been focused on creating murals, posters and stencils.

Graffiti of a Tsunami by Master - Serbia
Graffiti of a Tsunami by Master – Serbia

My large murals are created with a paintbrush, extender and acrylic. Each mural I create is dedicated to the place it’s located. For example, the soldier with the smoke behind him is defending nature against the growing coal industry.

The mural of the deer is about the hunters that exterminated the deer around my village.

Graffiti of a deer, by Master - Serbia
Graffiti of a deer, by Master – Serbia

Each of the posters I make is unique. They are all hand-made brush with acrylic on paper. I prefer drawing in  villages because nature provides me with the strongest inspiration and energy.

Escaping - Graffiti performance by Master, Milan
Escaping – Graffiti performance by Master, Milan

The graffiti and urban art scene in Serbia is huge. We’ve got loads of graffiti crews and most of them are writing because they love it. The financial situation is very bad, though we’ve had a couple of jams this year. It’s very complicated to live on your art here, which is why many don’t have the motivation to push their drawings and paintings to the next level. It’s really an undiscovered area of the world that has a huge underground culture with one motivation: Love!”

Graffiti of dead student, Serbia
Graffiti of dead student, Serbia