About the artist
Heiner Radau
Born in Berlin. Since 2015 Heiner Radau has been capturing the essence of the world's metropolises – with dip pen and ink, right on the street.
From graffiti writer to draftsman, from pop-up artist in the Berlin subway to Galerie Hilt in Basel.
Every line is a memory.
Every place has a story.
The journey
From graffiti
to city drawing
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“Graffiti on Silk Scarf”, Heiner's bachelor collection, Berlin 2013
2013Graffiti on silk
Heiner owes his black-and-white style to screen printing, which he has worked with intensively since 2013. During his textile design studies at the Berlin Weißensee Academy of Art, his bachelor project was born: graffiti on silk scarves.
Instead of hiring a French printer, he produced the scarves himself – dyes from America, silk from China, screens from Germany. With no prior experience he taught himself silk screen printing. He printed all seven designs by hand, with up to seven colours.
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Heiner drawing
2015Travel & Draw is born
The scarves were fantastic, but no retailer took them on – without a known brand, the doors of the designer stores in New York and Paris stayed closed.
So Heiner simplified his motifs to black and white, drew not just graffiti but entire cityscapes – and started drawing in public. That's how Travel & Draw was born. He graduated with this concept in 2015 and has been working ever since to live from his art by travelling and drawing cities around the world.
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Feature on Heiner Radau in Berlin's city magazine TIP, 2018
2017The subway pop-up artist
Heiner started out as a Berlin graffiti artist and evolved into a draftsman. In 2017 he became known in Berlin as the “subway pop-up artist”, showing his art directly to commuters on the U-Bahn.
That earned him a feature in the city magazine TIP Berlin and then a segment on MDR television.
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Heiner Radau at his vernissage at Galerie Hilt, Basel, 2019
2018From street art to Galerie Hilt
The TV segment caught the eye of a prominent gallerist – followed by an invitation to exhibit at the renowned Galerie Hilt in Basel.
His street-art roots remain clearly visible in his work, giving it raw energy and an urban character – balanced with the linework and precision of a Swiss watchmaker.
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Heiner drawing in Bali, Indonesia, 2024
TodayOne city, one sheet, one month
For about 30 days Heiner draws the busy scenes of a city with pen and ink, right on the street. The daily, diary-like drawings grow together on the sheet and store time and stories – a dense web of black and white lines, full of life and personal experiences from the city.
From Berlin to London and Paris, Vietnam and Laos (2016), Valencia, Brussels and Basel (2019) – it's twelve cities by now, and a new one is added every year.
On the road
Drawing where the city happens
