GAËL CLEINOW
ARTIST · BARCELONAExplore
The street.Street photography
Uninvited.
Unbothered.
Underdogs.
Five ways
of looking.
Gaël
Cleinow.
Gaël Cleinow is a Brussels-born artist based in Barcelona, working across tattoo, painting, sculpture and street photography.
His practice began with graffiti in Brussels in the 1990s. The street became a place to draw, experiment and find a community. That early relationship with line, scale and public space continues through his work, from marks on skin to paintings and objects.
Over ten years in Berlin, he developed the tattoo practice that became widely known under the name Hand Job Tattoo. He founded Future Berlin, an independent collective and studio that brought together artists with unconventional approaches to tattooing. His work extends beyond the studio into experimental music, live performance and moving image.
Experimental sound, theatre and video form an important part of his artistic path. In collaboration with choreographer Dani Brown, he contributed live sound and appeared as a guest performer in How Do You Imagine the Devil? (2012). For HOME (2013), created by Brown and Justin Kennedy, he worked on mapping and live sound. His camera work for Brown’s WITCHES #23.06.15 and VISION #26.06.15 (2015) further connects his practice to dance and performance through the moving image.
In 2013, he created the sound collage for Isabelle Schad’s Hinter den Gärten, an outdoor performance in Hamburg’s Oberhafen, using sounds recorded on site.
His visual language moves between spare outlines and dense textures, drawing on animal figures, classical imagery and everyday culture. Snarling dogs have become a recurring signature. In Dog bites dog, that familiar figure takes sculptural form, extending a motif seen throughout his tattoos into three dimensions.
His work has also crossed into fashion: his customised footwear for Dr. Martens and deadHYPE was featured in Dazed’s winter 2021 issue. His tattoo practice and the story of Future Berlin have been covered by GOAT and Go Out!, among other publications.
After a decade in Berlin and travels through more than fifty countries, Gaël chose Barcelona as his home in 2024. From this base, he continues to work internationally while developing his painting, sculpture and photography alongside tattooing. His street photographs turn towards encounters and ordinary gestures, bringing another perspective to a practice shaped by movement, observation and human connection.
Press & conversations“What runs through my work is an attention to people, traces and encounters. A tattoo takes shape with another person; a photograph catches a moment; painting and sculpture allow me to take a form further, to transform it. The medium changes, but I am always looking to create something that is felt before it is explained.”
Gaël Cleinow
Selected performance & film credits
Press &
conversations.
Let’s make
something
personal.
For tattoo bookings, tell me about your idea, placement and preferred dates using the booking form.
Book your session (opens in a new tab)For art enquiries and collaborations, get in touch by email.
cleinow.booking@gmail.com