Jim Avignon
Photo Hreinn Gudlaugsson
Photo Hreinn Gudlaugsson
Jim Avignon (born 24 December. 1966 in Munich) is a contemporary German pop artist and representatives of the art modeste, designer and musician. A respected cult figure in the art and Techno subculture in Berlin, he currently lives and works both in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in Berlin.
Jim Avignon was born Christian Reisz. He started painting when he was 21 years old, exhibiting in techno clubs. His ideas on art were very clear: "I'd rather sell a thousand images for one dollar, than one image for a thousand dollars." He demonstrated his commitment to this philosophy when he exhibited his work in Frankfurt in 1995: the public was allowed to take any of the 800 originals on display home for free. This exhibition was aptly named "Get Rich With Art". At a 1992 exhibition in Kassel, he created one painting each day only to destroy it in the evening. A documentary was made about the exhibition, called "Destroy Art Galleries".
In 1990 he painted a mural on he East Side Gallery wall and exhibited in 1992 with Brad Hwang, Les Amis du Musee and The Dead Chickens in East Berlin. Throughout the 1990s Jim Avignon exhibited in a variety of underground galleries in Berlin and Frankfurt. In the mid 1990s he began to concentrate on music but continued to design his record covers, flyers, posters and make backdrops for his shows.
Jim Avignon is a prolific, provocative and highly original artist who has published a number of books including: "Popbones" (1996), "Busy" (with DAG, 1998) and "Non Radioactive" (with Lisa Brown, 2000). Over the last ten years Jim has performed his music in New York, Tel Aviv, Brighton, Paris, Finland, Singapore and Russia.
Jim has made live paintings in a number of venues including the Institute of contemporary Art in London.
His designs have appeared on Swatch watches and the tail of an aeroplane.
For the Buddy Bear Berlin Show in 2001, he designed a bear that stood in a prominent location on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin for more than a year.
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