Citizen Brooklyn

Life of grime: Sto Len with his dirty water and ink prints.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini

A Williamsburg painter who goes by the name of Sto Len is making a practice out of combining the seriousness of ancient Japanese art with the irreverence of playing with dirt and filth. He will show off the results in a new solo exhibition titled “A–hats for S—heads,” opening Sept. 12 at Booklyn Artists Alliance in Greenpoint.

Len began working with Japanese sumi ink and experimenting with calligraphy a few years ago.

“I started mimicking it,” he said. “I turned it into my own abstract language.”

He then discovered suminagashi or “floating ink,” a 12th-century Japanese process that involves soaking up ink swirled on water with paper. In this style, an artist floats the ink on top of water for a few minutes to create a pattern and then lays down the paper for a few seconds to transfer to the design.

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