Hendrik Beikirch

Hendrik Beikirch, also known as ECB, is a German artist born in Kassel in 1974 and based in Koblenz. Active since the mid-1990s, he has become one of the most distinctive voices in European street art with his monumental portraits painted exclusively in black and white. His photorealistic style, marked by deliberate drips and distortions, brings to life anonymous faces — workers, fishermen, elders — often encountered during his travels around the world. Notable works include his 70-metre mural in Busan, South Korea (2012, then the tallest in Asia), the portrait of ironworker Kaya Urhan on the former Saarstahl plant in Völklingen for the 2022 Urban Art Biennale, and the tribute to painter Walter Bernstein in Schiffweiler. His practice explores working-class memory and the dignity of those overlooked by industrial history.