Owen Dippie visits Brooklyn and Masters the Art Mashup

Owen Dippie spent the last seven weeks in Brooklyn producing three magnificent murals. Dippie, originally from New Zealand, has an incredible style doing mash-ups. Most people know of Mash-ups from the music world taking two songs and combing them to create an even better track. Dippie does much the same but with different art genres. In his first mural for the Bushwick Collective, Dippie combines Jay-Z and Basquiat in an incredible homage to these two kings.

Owen Dippie at Work for the Bushwick Collective for his Jay-z/Basquiat Piece 1

Jay-z an obvious king of the hip-hop world combined with Basquiat – the original gangster of graffiti writing his SAMO tag before tagging was really a thing. Basquiat was also famous for topping off his tags with a crown which was a symbol adopted ubiquitously by the graffiti culture. Even today walking around the city you still see the graffiti culture referencing Mr. Basquiat. In the 70’s, Andy Warhol and Basquiat were the kings of the art world representing the high-brow and low-brow culture respectively. In this piece the crown, Andy, Basquiat, and Jay-Z come alive.

Owen Dippie;s completed Jay-z Basquiat tribute for the Bushwick Collective

For his second piece at the Bushwick Collective, Dippie sets up another mash-up. Dippie was inspired by the Renaissance painters growing up in the 80’s so he took Raphael’s The Madonna del Granduca and has combined it with Keith Haring’s Radiant Baby. This one rises three stories above the ground. Its the first time we have seen someone so successfully combine such classic artists in one place to create what he calls “The Radiant Madonna.”

Owen Dippie at work on his Radiant Madonna detail 1

The completed Radiant Madonna by Owen Dippie

For his final piece in Brooklyn, Dippie creates “Teenage Mutant Ninja ART Turtles” on Morgan St. This painting combines the classical painters and the Ninja Turtles who are named for them. In a brilliant combination of color and style, Dippie makes these figures really pop allowing us to envision each turtle as a protege of the classic artist.

Owen Dippie with his Ninja Art Turtle Sketch

OD at work on the hat of Donatello

The clever perspective of this giant mural along with the juxtaposition of grey-scale (representing antiquity) and color (representing the present) makes this work one of our favorite’s in all of Bushwick. We want to thank Owen for taking the time to talk with us, and for more information on his work check out his site.

OD at Work on the four Ninja art Turtles

Big Thanks to Leanna Valente for the photos.