Rab Dauber - Urban Vandal
Challenge walls and conventions, a call to today's world, marked by wars and sufferings, that pushes towards a deep reflection on human fragility.
Rab Dauber, a die-hard Brescian, is one of Italy's street art pioneers—though he prefers to call himself an "urban vandal." Active since the 2000s, his works stem from a multifaceted visual exploration: from nature to '80s and '90s pop culture, drawing inspiration from cult films like The Goonies and Donnie Darko, all the way to provocative takes on social themes, such as homeless people or family photos with gas masks—a nod to today's world, scarred by wars and suffering, that prompts deep reflection on human fragility.
Stickers are his main medium for spreading his art. Produced in series using various materials and techniques, his "Rab pockets" are always stocked, ready for a global guerrilla marketing campaign that scatters his name and style to every corner of the world. Beyond stickers, stencil reigns supreme: meticulously hand-cut, a nod to French artist Blek le Rat.
His creations fill national and international shows, from public spaces to private galleries worldwide. Yet Dauber has no doubts: "The street is and remains the ideal place to express art, ideas, and concepts."
Since 2020, during lockdown, the Mini Walls Project was born. It started as a simple pandemic experiment—with Rab cooped up at home, recreating "walls" on polyester surfaces modeled with cement, plaster, and other materials, then spraying his stencils on them—but it's growing bigger by the day. Today, Dauber has turned it into a collaboration with international artists, who freely paint over them to create unique works. These pieces indirectly evoke the controversial "removed walls" phenomenon of Banksy, sold at auction by collectors.
Click here for his works.
