My artistic origins lie in ‘writing’, in our society known as ‘graffiti’. For over 20 years, I have actively and intensively grappled with the idea of letters; I have studied these in their basic typographical forms and as autodidact further developed them. The name ‘Dare’ is the pseudonym that I adopted in 1986. After the many years when I wrote my name on walls all over the world, it seemed to me most honest to continue to write this name on canvas today. My paintings should be regarded as written self-portraits and if you believe that writing is an expression of personality, life can be found in each individual character.

This life, in turn, is me DARE! or Sigi von Koeding.” (Sigi “Dare” von Koeding)

In 1986 Dare (1968-2010) illegally began to spray graffiti. As an autodidact Sigi “Dare” von Koeding transformed in 1990 his hobby into profession and developed a complex style with almost perfectly arranged letters and pseudonyms, which gave him the opportunity to create a large international network. After putting his graffiti artworks on canvas he could exhibit in galleries and museums. This allowed him to exhibit his art pieces far beyond the European borders. His unique works are all underlined by his distinctive 3D – style , which comes into play particularly in large-scale Graffitis. Nevertheless, each of his works is unique and unlike any other. Dare’s body of work is not only to be found in different art institutions, he made several collaborations for example with discotheque, train stations or participated in life paintings. Even today, the Swiss pioneer marks an extremely important role in the graffiti scene in Switzerland, because even today his writings are studied meticulously by the latest Sprayer generation in Switzerland.