MORITZ FREY
MO’Z’ART

Born on a Friday, October 13, 1978, on a full moon night and raised in Küsnacht on the Lake of Zurich. Moritz attended primary school in Küsnacht and then transferred to secondary school in the city of Zurich. From a young age, he showed enthusiasm for creative work and painting. At the age of 7, he already attended his first painting courses. In retrospect, he would have preferred to attend an arts and crafts school and develop in that direction, but his path took a different turn.

In the 80s, he discovered the skateboard industry and its freestyle scene, which influenced his life. During this time, he quickly encountered talented street artists and the dynamic graffiti scene, whose influences can still be seen in his unique works today. Even back then, he felt a desire for freedom that the freestyle scene offered him. He did not hesitate to embellish city landscapes with spray cans. However, he soon realized that his true interest was more in sports, and he did not have the desire to be involved in illegal nighttime activities. Instead, he found a special place of creativity in his parents' garage, where he could continuously pursue and develop his passion for painting.

After completing his commercial school, he mainly focused on Snowboarding and spent much time in the mountains instead of on the streets with his skateboard. This passion eventually led him to spend a year in Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. Over the next four years, he traveled as a professional snowboarder and discovered the creative side of freestyle sports, which was as inspiring for him as creating art.

At the age of 24, he founded a small publishing company for sports magazines. Over 10 years, his publishing company released free sports magazines that were available in Switzerland. These included snowboarding, skateboarding, and skiing magazines, as well as a supplementary golf magazine. Sports has been a constant part of his life and continues to be important today.

With the emergence of Facebook and other digital platforms that posed increasing competition to print media, he shifted his focus to the digital realm and once again founded a small agency for digital communication. Since 2018, he has been dedicating himself more to painting and creative art in general.

During the two years from 2021 to 2023, when we were all forced to spend our lives within our own four walls and couldn't move freely, he used the time to further develop his creative skills. He explored various painting techniques and even ventured into oil painting.

His works are partially inspired by the mountains of Engadine and are influenced by pop and street art. In addition, the works of artist Max Zuber, who is his mother's life partner, have encouraged and supported him to advance his creative endeavors over the past 10 years. Moritz has already organized several of his exhibitions and in late 2023, he held a group exhibition with live painting at Max Zuber's studio in Zurich. His paintings are colorful, and joyful, and uplift the spirit.

photo copyright:  Patrick Armbruster