We’re super excited to see Kuvva Gallery become host to illustrator and designer Karl Grandin and the world of Omnipollo. This is a nomadic beer-brewing project initiated by Grandin and Henok Fentie. Together they design and brew small-scale batches of craft beer in cooperation with breweries around the world.
This exhibition’s story is told through the exploration of Grandin’s illustrations and designs; graphic, minimalistic, and colourful, they nonetheless maintain a psychedelic, even dark, air, tinged with a nagging incomprehensibility. Rather than creating a prepackaged world to be consumed, Grandin’s works create a surreal atmosphere in need of translation, into which the viewer is plunged.
In the few hours before the show commences, we had an opportunity to chat with the artist about this labour of love called Omnipollo.
Hi Karl, could you tell us how you got into Omnipollo at the first place?
It started with Henok. He’s a home brewer and he told a mutual friend of ours, an art curator, that he wanted to release a beer. She saw some sketches and got worried because it just looked like any other beer. She was like “He has been talking about this project for so long, it’s like the beer of his dream, and it would be nice if it looked like the beer of his dreams as well!”
I’m into beer but not seriously into making beer packaging. So I thought it was a great opportunity. We met and became great friends and we have been making beers since then. I thought at first it would just be the one beer, but it turned out to be more and more and it’s amazing. I like being involved in projects like this. It has complete artistic freedom. Henok can do whatever he wants with the beers. I can do whatever I want with the graphics. We never even have arguments and just slowly build up the world of Omnipollo together.
Omnipollo is quite personal to me. In general, when you make something you have to adapt it to your audience or buyers. We approached this at a personal level from the beginning. Instead of trying to make something that will fit in, now we make something that we can enjoy.
Are you afraid of losing coherence in the design as well as the beer?
I never worry about it, but our sellers tend to do so. Our importer was freaking out because we didn’t have a name on the bottles and each of them had a different design. They were thinking I was hiding some dangerous political or religious messages, while I just try to keep it simple, and a little loose and poetic. Most of my designs look quite clear and the basic idea is to take a sneak peek into the bottles, but people can have different way of interpreting it.
People often say that it’s easy to recognise our beers. I guess once you see it, you can connect to it personally. One advantage is that we’re quite small and we’re doing well enough to consistently make new beers and a strong fan base. There is a guy sending emails and letters rating every new beer we make. There are guys sending us emails and letters rating every new beer we make. There is a lot of community building and they keep an eye out for us so we don’t need to worry.
The nice thing is that I can do whatever I want basically. Just challenge the way beer usually looks, it will immediately stand out and people will remember it. But you have to keep changing. We probably spend more time than any other beer brands on the look. It’s not the cheapest beer. It sounds a bit silly, but we try to make an experience for the alcohol. I would like people to enjoy the bottle in the same way they enjoy a nicely designed sleeve for their favourite record.
What do you think about Kuvva Gallery’s space?
I really like it! I lived in Amsterdam for two years when I did my Master’s here at the Sandberg Institute. I used to come by this part of town quite a bit, and to have my old friend Samuel run a gallery here is perfect. And the Kuvva Gallery itself is also really nice, because it focuses, along with Present Plus, and other projects, on art that falls between categories. Like how WeTransfer is both a very useful, practical site, and an exhibition space for young artists. And that’s kind of how Omnipollo is as well – we create a product, but we are also artists, both me and Henok. We’s not pushing any sales here. It’s more about giving a showcase of an experiement like making something magical as alchemy. I think it’s going to be laid back and nice.
Do you have any future plan with Omnipollo?
We’ve been around for almost 4 years. I think we still need to grow a bit more and expand a bit more. We’re already selling in Brazil and even in Thailand but we would like to sell more maybe in East Asia or Ethiopia where Henok’s parents come from. We also have a plan to open a bar in Stockholm or somewhere else. But it’s not necessary to make bigger profits. We have enough beers to make non-profit beers every now and then. I really enjoy what we’re doing now. We keep on changing and doing the alchemy: two things come together and become something new.
Are there any projects like Omnipollo out there that combine beer and cool illustrations?
There aren’t that many actually, but I can tell you about three breweries with interesting label designs.
Jean Broillet is making some really strange and beautiful designs for his brewery Tired Hands in Pennsylvania.
Mikkeller is a nomadic brewery operation from Denmark with energetic and beautiful label art by Keith Shore.
Colin Healey is one of the two brothers behind Prairie Artisan Ales from Oklahoma and he’s responsible for the brewery’s crazy and intense label designs.
Thank you for the chat!
Thank you!
The beer that was created especially for Kuvva Gallery by Omnipollo was made at Brouwerij de Molen. A purple-pink sour wheat made with raspberries and key lime, this special brew will be the first step the visitors take into the Omnipollo world, before being led around the space decorated with prints of past bottle designs, murals, and even a tipi designed and illustrated by Grandin.
Come for the beer, stay for the art!
Join us for the public show opening on Thursday September 18th, 17:30 – 22:00
Kuvva Gallery, Pazzanistraat 33, 1014 DB, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, NL
This blog was first published on Kuvva blog.
Giang's Writing Vault 