A “Bald” Art Movement – Artist Uses His Head in the Name of Art

A few years ago, when he started to go bald, English artist Philip Levine decided he didn’t want to shave his head like everyone else. Instead he opted to turn it into a canvas for his art. That’s how the “headism” art movement was born.

While other complain about losing their hair, young Philip Levine looks at the full half of the glass: being bald gives him full freedom in a very specific and original way. Ever since he started shaving his head, in 2006, he began using it as a canvas for his various design ideas, and soon trend websites started posting photos of his bald artworks. In 2009 he realized his head was becoming and inspiration in the art world and decided to put on a show. Ever since then, his name and the headism art he pioneered have become iconic withing London’s art and fashion scenes.

Talking about the inspiration for his intriguing head designs, Philip Levine says he has always been a creative person, and working in fashion for a long time he has used people and images as inspiration. Ever since he created headism, Levine has covered his bald head with anything from1,000 Swarovski crystals, to coffee beans and paintings of Hokusai. He usually collaborates with body artist Kat Sinclair for his designs, and says most of them take about two hours to complete, but there have been some (like his acupuncture needle artwork) that took considerably longer.