Ekta's "Alt-Pop" Art

Juxtapoz art mag has a feature up on the Swiss artist Ekta. He takes the forms of classic abstract and graffiti art and presents them with playful immediacy. It's not Pop Art per se, but it engages like sophisticated pop music does. Here, I will coin the phrase, "Alt-Pop." Look at how the stairs are stairs to nowhere, as in the avant garde Dada or Fluxus movements, but echo pop artist Keith Haring with the thick black lines.

Here's an excerpt from his interview with Juxtapose write Kristin Farr:

Kristin Farr: What do you think makes abstraction unique and meaningful, and have you always been able to make it work?
Ekta: I think I had some vision of what I would like to do, but it took time and many detours to get there. I felt I had something to prove to myself before I could move on. Initially, my work was more illustration-based, and I wanted to move more towards painting. In recent years, I’ve gained the confidence to have a more free approach to my work. I don’t like to be stuck with the idea that the sun is round and yellow; it might as well be square and blue. My ambition when starting to work on something like a drawing, painting or collage is to surprise myself and have a playful approach. I value mistakes and accidents, and things usually start to get interesting just after making a big mistake, either with what is left after you take it out, or what appears when you start to work around it.