Every poster column in a big city is a collage in slow motion: poster pasted over poster, until weather and passing hands tear the layers open again. Alf Pedersen treats those torn layers as raw material. On regular trips to Berlin and Hamburg, he gathers torn posters from poster columns, along with other paper fragments, and brings them back to his studio in Esbjerg, Denmark.
There they are cut, layered, painted over, and reconstructed into new compositions, often combined with spray paint and acrylic in neon colors.
Alf Pedersen
A Harbour Childhood, a Self-Taught Hand
Pedersen, who also works under the name Alf P, grew up in a fishing family in Esbjerg with strong ties to the North Sea. He is self-taught, and his path into art began at 17. With over two decades of artistic experience to date, he shows maturity and confidence within his expression. His practice is driven by experimentation, freedom, and an instinctive approach to materials.
Alongside acrylic and spray paint, he works with photography, stencils, typography, torn posters, and recycled materials. Besides canvas, his surfaces include skateboards, driftwood, old floorboards, iron sheets, copper plates, and old illuminated signs, some of which now carry portraits of David Bowie, Johnny Cash, or James Brown. A central spot in his practice is taken up by the transformation of discarded materials into fresh, living art.
Alf Pedersen
Trash in Transit
Pedersen describes his style as Neo-Punk-Pop Art, a combination of street art, pop art, collage, and abstraction. His Facebook page adds the tagline Trash in Transit, an accurate and playful description of his artistic process.
The method recalls the affichistes of 1950s Paris, who tore posters from city walls. He names Jean-Michel Basquiat as a major influence, an inspiration behind the work titled Tribute To Samo. Punk, rock, and jazz represent major sources of inspiration for the artist, alongside cultural icons, historical figures, and symbols, all mixed with fragments of text broken apart to form new words.
Alf P’s works are multilayered materially and symbolically, and they leave viewers to find their own connections and narratives in between.
Pedersen describes his practice as a search for honesty, one he says can be enjoyable, liberating, claustrophobic, and even irritating. The works themselves are raw, urban, complex, and deliberately imperfect.
He has shown his art in Denmark and abroad.
Alf Pedersen’s work can be seen at the Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt, from October 29 to November 1, 2026.
Featured image: Alf Pedersen. Courtesy the artist.
Alf Pedersen