Mahir Jahmal – Mercedes Benz

Mahir Jahmal (AT)
“Mercedes Benz”, 2022
2c screen print on IQ Selection Board, 300g/m2
40x50cm, edition of 36
The print ships signed and numbered by the artist

Mahir Jahmal (1986–2023) was a Vienna-born photographer and musician of Sudanese descent — a close friend and a fixture of our scene. He called himself the “Fresh Prince of Favoriten,” and anyone who met him understood why. Trained at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, he developed a singular technique: physically crumpling light-sensitive photographic paper before exposure, transforming flat images into sculptural reliefs where urban motifs dissolve into angular, painting-like structures. In 2015, he presented “This Side Up” at our Jan Arnold Gallery.

Mercedes Benz is part of Jahmal’s final series “Crash Cars” (2022) — his crumpled photographic originals transposed into two-color screen prints using half-tone raster and a gold tone. The translation preserves the sculptural tension of the source material: a luxury icon rendered through the same process of physical distortion that defined his practice.

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mahirjahmal.com