Morphosis: Morphing in Tattoo Culture

In 1991, Ed Hardy painted the first Morphing (or Hybrid), mixing a black panther and a rose. Mike Malone told him to “make sure everybody knows it’s you, this will be everywhere soon!”

Twenty-five years later we can say that Mike Malone was right. The Morphings of Ed Hardy have found their echoes amongst traditional American tattoo artists, but not only. This type of design, which blends two patterns together, can be found in many contemporary tattoos. How can we not claim Morphing to be one of the foundations of tattoo culture?

It was an obvious choice for Cokney and the Maudit Caillou team to work on this theme. Not only is Morphing omnipresent in the art of tattoos, it is also a meaningful link between several generations of American and European tattoo artists.

For this exhibit we gathered pioneering artists directly influenced by Ed Hardy’s Morphings twenty years ago, as well as artists of the young generation living the tattoo culture in the age of the web and social networks.

Though we can criticize the impact the internet has on the development of contemporary tattoos, we would like to emphasize that many creative and passionate artists are coming from this new generation.

Presenting the works of artists from different countries is very important in order to showcase the use of the morphing concept in today's international tattoo scene.

Morphosis introduces international artists from France, the UK, the US, Spain, Bolivia, Scandinavia and Australia. One screenprint per artist or artist collective is exposed.

This exhibition, presented by Les Ateliers Fantome in Paris, will be held at The French Paper Gallery, June 1st to July 2nd.

The Artists: NATHAN KOSTECHKO, FRANK CARTER, JONAS NYBERG, PROYECTO ECLIPSE, GEB, CHAD KOEPLINGER, LUXIANO STREET CLASSIC, RAFEL DELALANDE, DERRICK SNODGRASS, JAMES MCKENNA, GREGGLETRON, COKNEY+JUST.

All the screenprints are available HERE..