a journey through ata bozaci’s early work

2013

Toast
Graffitecture
Mixed media on mural
Rubigen | 2013

Nightmare
Graffitecture
8m x 6m | Mixed media on wall
Privat apartment, Spittal an der Drau | 2013

A young, very wealthy couple had this villa built in Austria shortly after their marriage. The large, monochrome work had no name for a long time. Years later, the artist learns that the couple lost their entire fortune and the house to an impostor from Russia. Since then, the painting is called “Nightmare”. Now a sheik from Dubai is said to own the property.

2012

My adidas
Graffitecture
140 x 100 cm
Fine art print | 2012
view details

Henrik
Graffitecture
70 x 100 cm
Fine art print | 2012

E-Street
Graffitecture
70 x 100 cm
Fine art print | 2012
view details

Black devil
Graffitecture
70 x 100 cm
Fine art print | 2012
view details

Black devil sketch
Graffitecture
100 x 140cm
pencil on paper | 1998

Block floor
Graffitecture
100 x 70 cm
Fine art print | 2012
view details

2011

Poppy
Graffitecture
Mixed media on mural
Adelaide | 2011

Hype Balloon
Typokinetics
6.5 x 1.6 x 1.6 m
Inflatable sculpture, PVC
Installation view, Urban Art EFX
CBK, Amsterdam | 2011

The O
Graffitecture
stick together sculpture perspex
Installation view, Unexpected Playground
Retrospektive, The Essential Collection, Zürich | 2011

Z POV
Graffitecture
sculpture wood | 2011

Toast Swiss
Graffitecture
size of one letter ca. H 150 x L 70 x W 110 cm
stick together sculpture wood
installation view, Hardaupark, Zürich | 2011

2010

Eighty eight
Graffitecture
stick together sculpture wood black
Installation view, Unexpected Playground
Retrospektive, The Essential Collection, Zürich | 2010

Installation view, 1st Beijing International Design Triennial, Beijing | 2011

The stick together sculpture consists of eighty parts and shows a digital 8. The black elements are cut so that they wedge each other. The sides are covered with luminous tape. The 8 is readable from each side.

Flying hearts
Graffitecture
Mixed media on mural
The Dafen International Mural Invitational Exhibition
Dafen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China | 2010

Fourpack
mixed media on woodboard
100 x 600 cm
Installation view, Public provocations II
Colab Gallery, Weil am Rhein | 2010

2009

POV S-House
Graffitecture
60 x 80 cm
collage wood | 2009

Toast Black
Graffitecture
138 x 138 x 6 cm
Glass-blasted metalboard | 2008

Installation view
DARE, TOAST, STRUMBEL, BLEK LE RAT
Galerie Mang, Lindau | 2009 Urban Art
Galerie Springmann, München | 2008

Made of steel, the board shows the lettering “Toast”. The glass-blasted surfaces are matte and the highly polished steel reflects the light of the environment. Thus, depending on the incidence of light, the name appears sometimes more and sometimes less. It is a search and hide. This situation reflects the activity of spraying a New York steel train.

2008

Unexpected Interruption
600 x 400 cm
Acrylic on steel
Installation view, Die Kunst ist weiblich
Retrospektive Gunter Sachs
Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig | 2008

This is one of the most complex productions in the collaboration with Gunter Sachs. A large team of manual laborers carefully built and assembled the six steel plates. “Sticking on and removing the foil was hell. Luckily I had a great friend by my side who did half of the work,” says Ata Bozaci.

Toast Steel
Graffitecture
stick together sculpture steel
Installation view, Point of View, Galerie Springmann, Freiburg | 2008

This incredibly light appearing sculpture weighs about 60 kg per letter. The sculpture consists of 10 steel plates that can be inserted into each other. With these letters you can write in space. This is what the artist calls revolutionary in the history of graffiti writing. The difficulty was to make the letters legible from all sides. In the background we can see “EGO” works by Dare Sigi von Koeding.

2007

BLACK INK
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ATA “TOAST” BOZACI
24 x 28 cm, 2007
Hardcover, 240 pages, english and german
Published by Publikat

For graffiti artist and illustrator Ata TOAST Bozaci (1974) black ink is far more than just colour: It is the elixir which brings life into his countless ideas on paper. That is why the Swiss now turns to the origins and presents a collection of selected sketches from the last two decades in his book BLACK INK.

In graffiti scene he is simply called TOAST, others know him by the name of Ata Bozaci, or as the founder and co-owner of the firm ATALIER in Bern, Switzerland. As versatile as the person is the work of the internationally renowned multi-talent, who lately designed the private apartment of Gunter Sachs in the legendary castle at Lake Wörth, Austria. Although his murals, illustrations, and advertisements are quite different, they all share the same origin: a sketch made with black ink on a simple sheet of paper. With his book BLACK INK Ata Bozaci allows for the very first time an insight into the creative developing process of his works.

Already the first pages clearly show that TOAST learned his handcraft to a large extent without a computer – contrary to most other young artists. Lines and areas join each other organically and the viewer will recognise with surprise that the black ink on white paper seems to have some kind of life of its own. TOAST’s characteristic reduction to the essential is emphasised by the renunciation of colour and lets the originally coloured works almost appear unknown. Ata Bozaci wants to break the usual habits and invites the reader to take another look at putative known works to discover the goodness of simplicity.

view details

POV T-O-A-S-T
Graffitecture
K31 exhibition Lahr Germany
120 x 120 cm / 10 x 10 cm
plexiglas | 2007

Point of view
Graffitecture
Mixed media on wood panel
Collaboration with Dare Sigi von Koeding
Privat apartment Gunter Sachs
Schlosshotel am Wörthersee, Velden | 2007