MadC

Nicknamed ‘The Mad One’ for her radical approach to graffiti art, Claudia Walde works under the name MadC as a graffiti artist, muralist and designer, based in Berlin. Internationally recognised for her vibrant and arresting public works on a monumental scale, her nearly 30-year career boasts murals across the world, from New York to Abu Dhabi. MadC has recently taken her street art practice into the studio, simultaneously producing large outdoor murals, canvas paintings and digital art.  

Born in Bautzen, Germany, and raised in Ethiopia, MadC discovered art at a young age, taking courses with local artists in the early 1990s. She began as a graffiti writer as a teenager, painting her first graffiti piece aged 16. She then expanded into graphic design, studying at Nurg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle, and then at Central Saint Martins College, London, blending her formal education with her graffiti background. These dual concerns have consistently shaped her artistic career, as her themes blend street art and fine art references, and her unique tagging style is inspired by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and the renowned late graffiti artist Dare.

MadC’s work met international acclaim with the creation of 700-Wall, a massive mural she painted in Miami during Art Basel in 2010. A narrative work, the mural imagines the creation of graffiti styles through varied scenarios, in homage to the passion of the graffiti artist. Stretching over 700 feet, it is likely the largest graffiti mural made by a single person, taking four months to complete. In 2018 she broke her own record when she painted the 1000-Wall in Chicago. 

After 700-Wall, MadC embarked on developing a new, abstract visual style, characterised by bold colours and transparent, glass-like layers, energetic calligraphic forms resembling the wildstyle graffiti letters. Exploring the limits between fonts and abstraction, this body of work, displayed at the Reflections show in 2014 and The Tahiti Mural in Tahiti, offers a simplified visual language, exploring graffiti and street art cultures. This interest in the culture, anthropology and development of street art is reflected in her books, which include Sticker City – Paper Graffiti Art (2007) and Street Fonts – Graffiti Alphabets from Around the World (2011). Moving from the street to the gallery, MadC’s work underwent a shift, in her words, ‘taking the street energy to a canvas and how spray paint translated differently onto canvas’. Capturing the expressive potential of graffiti, MadC experimented with materials like 'Spectra' paint, ink, watercolour, acrylic paint, and acrylic markers. In 2022, she has expanded her pursuit of new media, translating her vibrant and abstract visual language into NFTs for the first time with the series Color Rhythms. Using machine learning to digitally construct and title her characteristically expressive compositions, MadC has described the resulting collection as ‘a big experiment where hand crafted art and AI meet to generate a beautiful and complex art project.’

MadC has exhibited her works across the world in solo exhibitions, including Over the Edge (2012) in San Francisco, United States and Night and Day (2015) in Dortmund, Germany. From her universally recognised, hyper-realistic forms to her abstract expressive lines and bold colours, MadC’s artistic practice is ever evolving. Informed by a constant desire to experiment, her work across multiple styles and media pushes the boundaries of traditional conceptions around painting and graffiti art.