Rooki is a British urban decollage artist from Manchester, UK.
His work uses appropriated street posters, film posters, print fragments, spray paint, marker, stencils and halftone portrait work to create decayed biographical portraits of cultural icons.
Immersing himself in the history of each figure, he sources imagery and text connected to their life, era and mythology. These fragments are layered, torn back and rebuilt repeatedly - revealing and obscuring over time. The biography is not simply illustrated; it is embedded in the material.
The main portrait is then introduced - digitally and analogue manipulated - and further worked into the layers with paint, ripping, and additional poster fragments linked to the icon. The process is physical, iterative and destructive by design.
The dripping crown appears throughout the work.
In graffiti culture, a crown is earned, not self-appointed - a mark granted by respect from their peers and the street.
Rooki uses the crown in the same way.
It is not a symbol of celebrity.
It is recognition of influence of those who changed culture permanently.
The distressed surfaces, torn edges and exposed layers reflect how legacy works:
images fade, time moves on, and yet certain figures continue to shape how we see ourselves.
Within each piece are hidden biographical fragments - some visible immediately, others revealed slowly as the viewer returns to the work.
The artwork is made to be discovered over time, not consumed in one glance.
Rooki hopes the viewer finds something familiar - a lyric, a memory, a feeling - and passes that recognition forward, keeping the icon alive through shared experience.
