Huge tiger in San Francisco

We’re in Antwerp, in a somewhat run down bar not far from the central train station, where we have agreed to meet KBTR, aka De Utrechtse Kabouter (the gnome from Utrecht). KBTR has quickly become one of the most iconic street artists in Holland, recognisable by his grinning gnomes with pointed red hats and little white beards. With me is Cosh, a Dutch graffiti writer who started back in the late eighties and who has painted together with KBTR several times.

To those who are not yet familiar with your work, can you give us an introduction into your world? As a kid I wasn’t particularly interested in art, I was just interested in everything. In primary school we learned about the Renaissance concept of the ‘Homo universalis’ and it became my objective to be one. I wanted to explore and investigate stuff. I wanted to learn, to grow, and to understand

We’re at Nychos’ studio in Vienna, while he’s painting on his new canvas for Art Basel Miami. It’s midnight and loud guitar music is blasting…

With the ongoing crisis, there are many empty office buildings in big cities. Some owners find creative solutions to temporary fill the space with pop-up stores. Homebase in Rotterdam opened her doors for the fourth time already, and sells affordable art from people all over the Netherlands. Each two weeks they host another show and their opening parties are always a good place to meet the artists behind the works and have a few beers together.

Russia is a huge country with a rich history, but when it comes to graffiti, it’s still pretty much an hidden gem. SAM talked to the very active Trun from Saint Petersburg

Kozyndan are a Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife illustrator team, known for their highly detailed drawings of surreal cityscapes, knitted bunny fish and fine art objects. They are obsessed with the ocean and being underwater and hope to someday come to rest at the bottom of the sea and slowly be devoured by deep sea creatures.

Can you introduce yourself? My name is Caver / Vulto, a young, middle aged graffiti writer and illustrator from Lisbon, Portugal.

Dutch artist OX-Alien is a man of little words. When we asked him to tell us something about his painting, he just mailed us a huge load of pictures and excused himself and went painting again. He tries to go out painting every day, even if he’s on a holiday. One of the most active members of Dutch collective Lastplak, you can’t walk the streets of Rotterdam without spotting at least one of his OX eyed aliens.

I can’t help but asking; are you in any way related to the world famous F1 racer Ayrton Senna? One time my father researched this, and we are related like far, far, far away.