Martin Ander

Martin "Mander" Ander (born 6 April 1976) is a Swedish graphic designer, illustrator and artist known for his work in the skateboard and music industry.

Life and career Martin Ander grew up in the 1970s and 80s in a suburb of Stockholm. His mother was a journalist, while his father was a graphic designer and art director at an advertising agency.

It was in the Swedish capital that he started to get involved with the skateboarding scene and culture in the mid-1980s. That was when skateboarding became an influential trend in Northern Europe. As a teenager, he also experimented with graffiti and his later works draw significant inspiration from this scene. For a period from 1991 on, he participated actively in the Stockholm graffiti scene, but realized soon after that "[he] was never going to be a hard core train writer or bomber, so [he] stuck to just being in the culture, sketching, painting walls, partying, and hanging out with other writers".

Drawing has always been a part of his life. As a teenager he started to combine his creative work with his involvement in the skateboarding community, for example by drawing for the local skateboard shop. Together with a friend, he also started a skateboarding fanzine and did all the illustrations. During a period of four to five years, he designed about 150 graphics for them. ), album art (for rapper KRS-ONE and the Netflix series Stranger Things ) as well as worked on different product designs, advertising campaigns and signature collaborations with, among others, clothing brand RVCA, watch brand CHPO, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Furthermore, he has edited books such as children books about hip hop and sketch books, but also co-edited Sheraton Years – Stockholm Skateboarding 1991–1999 and a review of his own works, Ouff! Mander Selected Works.

As major sources of inspiration and artistic influences, he cites the global skateboarding community, artists Rick Griffin and Hans Arnold as well as the MAD magazine.

Nowadays, Martin Ander is based in Gnesta.

Publications Ouff! Mander Selected Works (2018) Stockholm Coloring Book (2016) Slajs – En rappa-med-bok om Pizza (2014) Cut and Fold Subway Sketch Book (2013) The Hip Hop Board Book (2012) Subway Sketchbook (2010) Sheraton Years – Stockholm Skateboarding 1991–1999 (2008, together with Martin Karlsson and Jens Andersson)

Exhibitions Mander. Teckning, posters och grafik, exhibition at Sörmlands museum (2021-2022) Mander 2020, solo show at Brillo, Stockholm, Sweden (2020) Bagage, solo retrospect exhibition, Trelleborgs Museum, Sweden (2019–2020) Mander at Teckningsmuseet, solo retrospect exhibition. The Museum of Drawings, Laholm, Sweden (2019) Svensk Konst Nu (Swedish Art Now), group show. Nora Art/Bryggeriet Nora, Sweden (2018) Violent By Design, Second Installment, group show. Exhibit A Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2017)