It all began inside a vault. Several years later it continued with a gallery in Berlin. Eventually pinnacling in 5 years of STROKE Art Fair on April 30. Brothers and STROKE founders Raiko and Marco Schwalbe had a long but successful way to gaining recognition in the contemporary art world. Every step leading up to the tenth STROKE was guided by the brothers' notion of underrepresentation of urban art galleries in the contemporary art market. Neither urban art galleries nor artists had the possibility to present themselves to a broad audience.
Classical fairs are rarely an option for urban art representatives due to the high exhibition costs. The budget of young galleries doesn’t allow the booking of booths at Art Basel, Armory or Frieze. In order to be able to afford exhibition fees, galleries need to increase their budget by presenting and eventually selling artworks to a larger audience. The inaccessibility of this cycle for urban art galleries was ultimately the initiating impulse for the Schwalbe brothers to create a new cycle. STROKE offers a presentation event that connects outstanding urban art to the broad public.
