Pokras Lampas

Famous modern calligraphy artist. Creator of the Calligrafuturism. One of the most distinguished
modern calligraphy representatives, one of the opinion leaders of modern calligraphy community.

Russian artist Pokras Lampas was born in September 1991 in Korolyov, Russia, and is today one of the
most distinguished modern calligraphy representatives.
He started creating graffiti in 2008 and soon after was inspired by the “Calligraffiti” movement; hence he
turned his focus on street calligraphy. Later, Pokras Lampas was invited to become an official Calligraffiti
ambassador while he also was working on a self-developed “Calligrafuturism” style.
Pokras Lampas is actively experiencing different directions of modern calligraphy by applying and
combining his knowledge of street culture, design and typography of different nations and generations.
He is particularly involved in street art projects, exhibitions and other related projects since 2013.
He regularly works with main Russian and international brands. Recently, Pokras Lampas started to work
with high fashion brands and developed a menswear collection.
Over the past years, Pokras Lampas took part to group exhibitions and art projects held in Russia,
France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Korea and UAE.
In 2015, Pokras Lampas performed the first world`s largest calligraffiti on the roof of a building in
Moscow. The artwork can be seen from a satellite and on Google Earth.

Pokras is actively experimenting with different directions of modern calligraphy by applying and
combining his knowledge of street culture, design and typography of different nations and ages. Also
Pokras taking participation in a fashion weeks with art-performances, working with the new
technologies like a digital projections, Virtual Reality. The artist has a large audience on the Internet,
more than 150 000 people follow him on social media.
Calligrafuturism
Pokras Lampas has always been loving letters. He started with creating graffiti and then moved to
making graphic design and calligraphy. Along the way he has often been inspired by the harmony of
letter`s shapes and their ability to carry a cultural background in them. He admire their capacity to
concisely express any idea; when the texts themselves, along with the process of writing, are
transformed into an object of art and inspiration.

Over the years, he studied calligraphy history. He constantly travelled around the world and met
young and old masters to learn and analyze their experience. This gave him an idea about how often we
are studying the past while forgetting that the future history is being made here and now. This led him
to deepen within his own reflections on the calligraphy of the future.

His main goal is to show the harmony of different cultures united within modern calligraphy. He's glad to
see a strong growth of world's multiculturalism, which is reflected in art, music, education and everyday
life. This is the future that he sees and the values which he promotes.
He is always open to new experiments — creating huge works on the roofs, participating in the fashion
performances, collaborating with the major and local brands, trying new technologies like virtual reality
and much more. All his experience, emotions and knowledge are being transmitted in his works, which
is forming a clear retrospective of his oeuvre.
He created the term “Calligrafuturism” based on his own impressions, opinions, searches and
experiences. It is dedicated to show his artistic vision of the future calligraphy and unite those who
shares my concepts.
My take on his style

I remember seeing one of his now widely known “calligraphy on girls” videos and immediately being
drawn to his style, colours and the perfect execution of his work. That first visual impact never left the
back of my mind.

Thanks to social media, I was able to follow him, like secret admirer. Theyoung artists mature work and
technique has evolved into todays most sophisticated form of “Calligrafitti”.

Pokras was the youngest artist selected to feature a well-curated selection of his artworks in the 7th
edition of the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennale.

The first thing that struck me is his relentless ability to push the boundaries of calligraphy further than
anybody ever has. Whether in different alphabet, use of colours, mediums, instruments, textures,
Pokras is showing an incredible maturity and curiosity. All of this passion and technique are now
translated onto twenty gorgeous canvases, unveiled on the occasion of this solo show aptly titled
“Calligrafuturism.

I then began to merge calligraphy and graffiti calling it Calligraffiti with my graphic design knowledge,
digital research and international typographic trends.

"We are living in a special time when there is no limits in mediums for an artist" he says. For him I see
the most important thing is the freedom of creativity, and that`s why I love how he experiments with it.
Virtual reality has huge possibilities, but he prefers the feeling of the texture, paint and tool, so the best
mediums for him are the canvases and walls and floors. This is seen from his major live projects.
He has explored calligrafitti on nudes, vehicles, metals, clothes, fabric, murals, sculptures, glass, he also
wants to merge the digital age with his work by using light projections.

Special technique based on the change of the bronze colour into the old rusted metal one.

This artwork is dedicated to the harmony between the eastern and western worlds. The circle form of
this composition meets the rhombus shape of the golden details within. Together these geometric
shapes symbolise the “dot” in different cultures.
Based on the eye of david, this artwork is dedicated to my vision of letters and calligraphy in the deep
future.

Inspired by “40 poems from the desert”, written by his highness sheikh mohammed bin rashid al
maktoum. Pokras lampas has used this volume of poetry to learn more about arabic literature.

3D space calligraphy by Pokras Lampas

He created a series of works for a new collection of Driss Van Noten SS17, which this year released
worldwide in the brand stores. Modern gothic and glitch @glitcheapp, carried by embroidery on ideal
swiss shots @driesvannoten.

This project and the fact that he combined the future and technologies with the traditional values of
the famous high-fashion brand. (at Dries Van Noten Showroom, Paris)