About Sven 'Debo' Bode
ArteVue Contact me directly at: info@artevue.com “I am originally from Berlin, Germany. We say it as it is. My Art is my Soul – Pure and real! The process is intense and exhausting and a painting evolves while creating it until it is satisfactory to me and ready to present so you will love it. More images at: www.ArteVue.com. At seventeen, DEBO set out to discover the world. He first moved to Berlin where he began his University studies in engineering. His true passion, however, pushed him to also attend art workshops and classes at Berlin’s Academy of Arts. Always a frequent visitor to the city’s astounding art museums, he studied the great masters. And at the National Gallery, he had the opportunity to attend lectures by the world-renowned Modernist, Joseph Beuys. Although young DEBO had found artistic inspiration through Pablo Picasso’s, Salvador Dalí’s, Jackson Pollock’s and Marc Chagall’s works, it was Joseph Beuys who gave him the confidence to pursue his own style and display his pieces in galleries. Beuys (1921 – 1986) reinvented the avant-garde in Germany, with a fair bit of controversy on the side. According to MoMA, Beuys didn’t see a separation between art and society. In his last twenty years, he devoted his time “to both art and constant activism for socioeconomic reform.” Provocative artist, activist and professor of art, Beuys further sparked DEBO’s artistic talents. DEBO may not have used fat and felt (Beuys’s signature materials), but he spent years experimenting and exploring his own style. During this period he traveled around the world, visiting countries and cities all over Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. These experiences influenced his artistic phases. “It was a Saturday,” DEBO told me. “I was coming down the steps from my office’s building, ready to cross the street,” he remembers. There, ahead, walking toward him, he spotted His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama with his bodyguards. “The Dalai Lama was on a political visit to Berlin and may have wanted to discover the real people of the city,” he said. This chance encounter was about to have a profound impact on the artist. “I will say ‘Hello’,” he thought and tried. After the bodyguards made sure that he was of no threat to HH, the Dalai Lama, charismatic as always, ended up sitting down with DEBO by the steps of his office building. They chatted about life, spiritual moments and art. “He advised to create beauty from the heart and what is part of my inner self, to give enjoyable moments to the people,” the artist remembers. After their chat, DEBO was ready “to make the commitment to present to the world his message.” His new artistic persona was a fusion of the corporate and the creative. See, it was not only through art that he would “create.” Whether it is through fashion photography, industrial engineering, magazine publishing or painting, DEBO fulfills his passion. He reinvented himself as an artist in 1994 with his Ethno series, acrylics on canvas. More than sixty large paintings were created over a period of time, some pieces reaching prices of over $20,000. Collectors are frequently asking for more releases from the artist. “Travel widens your horizons, literally,” he told me. Taking in various cultures and sights, he played with global themes, putting his touch on each canvas. The Ethno series (paintings ranging from colorful simplistic figures to near expressionism-realism) defined the artist as the “missing link between pop art and cave drawings,” he says. “Like life, we evolve and everything changes,” DEBO says about his different art phases. His abstract phase, consisting of impressive oil paintings on canvas, began in 2006. “Heart” (2006, 48” x 60”) is one of these large paintings. Although abstract, it looks as if you can feel and hear the organ pounding. Vivid, deep reds give it life and guide you through a world of emotion.
Exhibitions:
DEBO’s art has been exhibited in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, Tokyo, L.A., Orlando, Alys Beach, Florida, Seacrest Beach, FL.
Education:
TU Berlin & Berlin’s Academy of Arts
Events:
“In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and DEBO does just that. Staying true to his heart, his passions and emotions, he paints bold creations that spark the fantasy.
More images at: www.ArteVue.com
