Street Art Cities

Sidney Waerts (Lelystad, 1976) is a renowned self-taught artist and muralist. He has been drawing and painting since he was four. After a 15-year career in advertising, he now makes paintings and sculptures for exhibitions in galleries and museums in the Netherlands and abroad. At the same time, Sidney has also devoted himself to mural art. "Mural art helps to increase solidarity in neighbourhoods," Sidney says. "Neighbourhoods are portrayed in a more positive light because it creates an open-air gallery that involves whole communities. The art represents the community and therefore creates a sense of security and belonging."

"Sidney's work is characterized by a feeling of comfort and discomfort. His paintings and sculptures show the moment when beauty loses its raison d’être, and presents its darkest side. Behind his figurative images lies a disturbing analysis of our times. Sidney demonstrates artificial characters, human beings and animals that remind us of the banality of everyday life, of our obsession with appearance, look and materialism. These characters are the victims of our visual and fast society, the technology of the visible – where human vanity stands in the way of a truly ethical life. By using black and white, Sidney creates sober and melancholic images, as if man – while endlessly believing in progression – has lost something on the way. But on the other hand he displays a maximum of effects: the rough textures and fast strokes look dramatic and seductive, the settings are theatrical and grotesque.
This ambiguity – between the temptation of beauty and our constant urge to abuse her – is the driving force behind Sidney’s work." - Artists website