Emess’ path did not lead from the street to the studio, but the other way round. When he left the Berlin University of the Arts in the early noughties, he was a trained artist, but the path through galleries and institutions seemed pointless and unfruitful to him.

At the same time, the young street art scene was flourishing and networking globally. This was the wake-up call for Emess to take his images into the city, seeking dialogue with the entire population.

For almost a decade, Emess has used the graphic treasure trove of commercial banknotes as an artistic resource. In colourful print collages, he combines portraits of international currencies with elements of screen printing, stencils, painting and graffiti and creates an electrifying network of multi-layered allusions and associations.

Emess graduated as a master student from the UdK Berlin in 2000 and runs an art gallery in Berlin as a freelance artist.