BÄST, US

Using collage to create what he calls “mutated characters” and “mutated scenes,” the Brooklyn-based street artist known as Bäst has been embellishing urban environments in New York and Europe with his wheat-pasted posters for more than 15 years. Inspired by early punk flyers, Bäst appropriates iconic images from 20th- and 21st-century mass culture, creating collages that mash up classic cartoon characters, fast food branding, and sex advertisements into biting satires of consumer culture. An integral part of the international street art scene, he is among the few artists to retain one of the first things that comes with gallery recognition: anonymity. Always refusing interviews, he claims only: “I go to sleep with a pizza on my chest. It’s embarrassing.” Such self-effacement belies a successful under- and above-ground career, with both solo projects and collaborative ones with the urban collective FAILE and the designer Marc Jacobs.

Michael “Bäst” Polimeni (he/him) was born in Coney Island, New York in 1970. He lived in Brooklyn until his death in 2021, and spent many years working at nearby JFK Airport.