Born in Amsterdam in 1967, Niels Muelman became ‘Shoe’ at the age of 12, tagging through teenage nights while the form was barely out of its diapers. Six years later he was infamous, co-founding the still-esteemd Crime Time Kings crew and transitioning to commercial lettering work.

The genre of ‘calligraffiti’ owes its genesis to Meulman’s mentor Anthon Beeke, a self-taught design dust-kicker best known for his “Naked Ladies Alphabet”, who saw in Shoe a shared lean to rile and ruffle feather.  With Beeke’s signposts Muelman came to fuse The Sharpie with classic typography, seeing in the Bauhaus-murdered art of calligraphy a discursive space of high-to-low, which wholly informs Calligraffiti.

” For the record, calligrafitti belongs to the same family as ‘street art,’ or unsanctioned art, e.g., not government sponsored. And calligrafitti is ‘post’-graffiti — not ‘territorial’ graffiti, which is more like dogs peeing to create boundaries.” – Shoe

Also, Common Ground Gallery is no bunch of slouches: “The gallery is situated in the Hip Hop Stützpunkt in Berlin, which is also the base of the publisher. The Common Ground Gallery works closely with artists and activists involved in expressions of Urban Art. Relationships with many of the artists have evolved during a course of more than 25 years of experience and participation in the Global Style Writing Movement and numerous cultural projects, exhibitions and publications in various fields of urban culture.”

Shoe prepping the space for his 2007 show in Amsterdam:

For our KSpace people in Berlin, two events with Shoe happening this week:

Special Event: Calligraffiti, lecture by Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 11th @ 8 pm
Basement Bar
Linienstrasse 154 A
10115 Berlin

Opening & Book release party with Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 12th @ 7 pm
Special Guests: Die Schallplattenpolizei/Amsterdam + DJs Cat 22 (CTK) & Adrenalin
Common Ground Gallery
Mo-Sa, 2-7pm
Marienburger Str. 16 A
10405 Berlin