Paula Muñoz
Walking through Berlin, it is easy to notice how urban art has long been dominated by men, with women often less visible in the streets. In recent years, however, more women have started to claim space and bring new perspectives into the city. One of the ways this shift becomes visible is through paste-up, a technique that allows artists to prepare their work in advance and install it quickly in public space. This method opens up new ways of working in the city, making urban art more flexible and adaptable to everyday urban rhythms. As a result, paste-up has become an important tool to express new ideas and reshape Berlin’s visual landscape.
Urban art has long been rooted in public space. From early artistic expressions in streets and squares to the emergence of modern graffiti, it has functioned as a form of communication between individuals and their environment. While graffiti, historically associated with tagging and territorial marking, has often been perceived as vandalism, street art has evolved into a broader and more accepted practice. Techniques such as stencils, posters and paste-ups have made urban art more accessible, readable and increasingly integrated into the city´s visual environment.
Moreover, Berlin plays a central role in this evolution. As described by Kai Jakob in Street Art in Berlin, the city’s post-wall context created unique opportunities for artists to experiment freely and redefine public space. In the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, large vacant areas and a city in transition allowed new forms of artistic expression to emerge outside traditional institutions. Over time, this environment helped establish Berlin as an international hub for urban creativity. Today, the city functions as an open-air gallery, continuously shaped by layers of artistic intervention, where different styles, techniques and voices coexist and interact across its surfaces.
However, this apparent openness does not erase existing inequalities. Graffiti culture, in particular, has historically been dominated by men and shaped by conditions that demand visibility, speed and a degree of risk in public space. As highlighted by researcher Sofia Pinto in her study on gender in graffiti and street art, these dynamics have often limited women’s participation in street-based artistic practices, reinforcing unequal structures of access. In contrast, paste-up offers a different approach, allowing artists to work more independently and in a more prepared way, while still engaging directly with the urban environment.
Within this context, Katie, a Berlin-based paste-up artist originally from Chicago, offers a distinct perspective. She moved to the German capital in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, a period in which the city felt unusually quiet and slowed down. During this time, long walks through Berlin led her to engage more deeply with its street art scene, gradually transforming simple observation into a more active artistic practice rooted in the urban environment. Over time, these everyday explorations became an important part of her creative process, helping her develop a closer connection to the city and its visual culture.
Her background is closely linked to textile work, as she has worked with threads for as long as she can remember. Over time, she developed an interest in tatting, a traditional lace-making technique. In Berlin, the artist began translating this craft into the urban environment, combining textile traditions with the visual language of street art. This process allowed her to connect personal craft practices with the public space of the city, creating a dialogue between handmade textile work and urban surfaces.
As a result, her paste-ups combine detailed, lace-like patterns with the rough textures of the city. Installed on walls and urban infrastructure, they create a contrast between softness and hardness, as well as between tradition and modernity. This tension invites people to look more closely and reconsider the relationship between domestic craft and public space. At the same time, her work often engages with themes linked to queer communities, drag culture, and feminism, using these visual interventions to bring visibility to identities and narratives that are not always present in the urban environment.
Speaking about her creative process, Katie explains how the paste-up technique allows a different way of working in the city. This method lets her prepare her pieces in advance, often at home or in the studio, and then install them quickly on walls. She can easily adapt to the changing and sometimes unpredictable nature of public space. Over time, this flexibility has become a key part of her practice, giving her the freedom to respond to the city and its surroundings.
At the same time, she reflects on the realities of working as a woman in public space. Even when going out with a group, there is often a sense of insecurity, especially at night or in environments where people may not be in a condition that allows for focused work. While she acknowledges that the presence of women in street art has grown significantly in recent years, a degree of caution still remains.
Ultimately, her practice exists at the intersection of craft and urban intervention. By bringing textile traditions into the street, the artist challenges conventional ideas of what urban art can be and who it is for. Her work connects personal memory with collective space, transforming delicate patterns into subtle but powerful public statements.
As Berlin continues to change, its visual identity also evolves. Through these quiet yet consistent interventions, artists like her contribute to a more diverse and inclusive urban landscape, where women’s voices are increasingly visible. In this way, their work opens up new ways of understanding the city and the stories it can hold.
