Biography
Born in South Korea and raised in Southern California, Cryptik began making street art in 2008 in Los Angeles. Drawn to graffiti as a child, he soon traded the spray can for the paintbrush, developing a distinctive calligraphic style that fuses ancient scripts — Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi — with the aesthetics of cholo writing and street graffiti. This hybrid visual language became the foundation of a body of work devoted to spirituality and consciousness.
The artist coined the term "mantradala," a blend of mantra and mandala, to describe compositions that function as tools for meditation and introspection. His murals depict deities and spiritual figures surrounded by sacred calligraphy, creating what he calls "a language of universality." Among his influences, he cites Andy Goldsworthy, Chaz Bojorquez, and RETNA.
His work can be found in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Seoul, Berlin, and Montreal. He has participated in festivals including POW!WOW!, Mural Festival, and Crush, and held a solo exhibition at Galerie Itinerrance in Paris in 2019 as well as showing at the Urban Nation Biennale in Berlin. Intensely private, he works from his Los Angeles studio under the banner of the "Cryptik Movement," dedicated to collective awakening through public art.
The artist coined the term "mantradala," a blend of mantra and mandala, to describe compositions that function as tools for meditation and introspection. His murals depict deities and spiritual figures surrounded by sacred calligraphy, creating what he calls "a language of universality." Among his influences, he cites Andy Goldsworthy, Chaz Bojorquez, and RETNA.
His work can be found in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Seoul, Berlin, and Montreal. He has participated in festivals including POW!WOW!, Mural Festival, and Crush, and held a solo exhibition at Galerie Itinerrance in Paris in 2019 as well as showing at the Urban Nation Biennale in Berlin. Intensely private, he works from his Los Angeles studio under the banner of the "Cryptik Movement," dedicated to collective awakening through public art.
The site contains a total of 3 artworks by Cryptik in 3 countries.
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Artworks by Cryptik have been viewed 70 times.
