While Larsen’s versatile practice alternates between mural art and acrylic painting, it is linked together by his vibrant color palette, the recurrent use of graffiti techniques, distinct black outlines and vibrant fill-ins, and the city-centered motifs he often revisits and reinvents in his expressive compositions. When viewed together, Larsen’s snapshots of urban life, which also bear an autobiographical component, tell the viewer an open-ended story that delves into the possibilities but also the harsh realities that lie beneath every city skyline.

With a background in Graphic Design, which he studied at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, from a young age Larson ventured into the world of street and graffiti art first in Oslo, where he faced several government restrictions, and then more openly in Melbourne, a mecca for the development of urban art and where graffiti was accepted and invited. In his school years, Larsen started creating wall works which initially took the form of heavily distorted and colorful faces intuitively constructed with spray paint which he constructed as graffiti instead of the traditional letters. He simply titled these faces as “Crazyyfaces” and has later explained them as portraits of his own frustration. However, after some time, Larsen started incorporating the city, often devoiced of the human presence and rendered in abstract notes, as its main subject viewing it as a “parallel universe” where to nest his varied real-life and imaginary motifs. During this time, Larsen also came up with his distinctive moniker, SinnSykShit, as a means to refer to his creative vein while at the same time revealing a dose of youthful irreverence.

Remarkably, over time, whether being part of large-scale murals or acrylic paintings which came later on into the picture, Larsen’s cityscapes, frequently produced in series inspired by his life experiences, are portrayed by the artist from varied viewpoints. Usually, the same schematic, strongly outlined, and modernist-looking buildings which populate his compositions reappear once and again in his bird-eye city views, but on occasion also complement intimate spaces like bathrooms or living rooms, or are viewed from moving cars and trains. It is as if Larsen is trying to capture the prevalence of architecture within any kind of urban setting while only hinting to its inhabitants through fractions of their bodies or the objects they own which sometimes speak of their conflicting life stories imbued in anxiety, loneliness, or substance abuse. All these aspects grant some of Larsen’s works a melancholic and, one may say, mysterious air that invites the viewer to decipher the story lines that unfold within them.  

Interestingly, while influenced by the work of graffiti artists like Reka or Pose and other modern and contemporary artists like Picasso or Hockney who incorporated bright colors and dramatic outlines into their art, or by the ideas of Norwegian artist Pushwagner. Larsen also finds inspiration in the lines and colors characteristic of the vector-based illustrations attached to his graphic design background. In this way, rather than following the wave, Larsen has set his own path within the realm of urban art which since the 2000s has increasingly gained recognition in the mainstream art world. Without a doubt, over his decades-long career, Larsen has managed to build a recognizable yet original and approachable painting style that seems to provide him with limitless creative options that revolve around the pulse of the city, which is his go-to theme, main inspiration, and artistic support all at once. In his hands, everything that forms part of city life, the good, the bad, and the unexpected, is suggested but not entirely revealed through its architecture.

Kim A. Larsen (b.1987, Norway) regularly receives commissions to paint walls and murals, and is represented by Oslo Nowhere Gallery. His work has been exhibited both in solo and group shows in Norway, France, Italy and Australia. Next to his artistic practice, Larsen is also the founder of the Norwegian urban art magazine SplitCity Magazine and cofounder of Urbant Verksted, an urban art workshop for youths.

Written by: Constanza Ontiveros. Art Historian, PhD.