[imagesource:whereishardo.com]

An anonymous Dutch artist known only as ‘Hardo’ is being called the ‘Banksy of shipping’ for using unique art to celebrate the world of finance, markets, and now, even shipping.

Hardo, who is also managing director of a fictional investment bank called Hardo & Co, this year unveiled his latest work on canvas, which celebrates the world of dry bulk shipping. Now before you ask how artistic dry bulk shipping can be, there is a considerable weight of intelligence behind Hardo’s art, which depicts the world of global shipping and involves hours of painstaking work.

By day, Hardo works for a niche commodities firm and has a background within the financial sector. Given his day job, Hardo wishes to remain anonymous for now, which of course draws parallels with the street artist Banksy.

However the comparison is strange, as Hardo celebrates some of the spaces Banksy rebels against. “I really prefer for Hardo to be ‘putting the Bank in Banksy’, if you like — let it be about the work, not about the person,” the artist/trader says.

Hardo’s latest work on canvas is called Baltic Degens and celebrates all the ‘self-confessed degenerates’ at work in dry freight markets today.

“I’ll be very blunt: I’ve never traded a single shipping product in my life,” Hardo said. “I have a couple of friends who became freight traders, either for some years or focused a career on Panamax trading — and I was always curious how their markets worked.”

His latest piece is a gigantic game of Battleships with a fleet of bulkers arranged against a backdrop of trading screens for freight derivatives — but there is a lot more to it than that.

Most of Hardo’s works until now have focused on the financial sector, such as the James Bond-themed NYSE Royale. He explains his interest in the shipping world is a recent one. “What really interests me in the shipping space because I was fascinated by the complete sheer size of it, and how it just impacts everything we see or touch.”

The name “Hardo” is a play on “try-hard” and is meant to sound a bit like Waldo, from Where’s Waldo? –  an obvious influence on the detailed works where the more you look, the more you see.

Like Waldo, the character of Hardo appears in all the artist’s works, wearing the typical finance-guy getup. “He is someone who tries way too hard — the person in the back office with a big Gucci belt and who really wants to show that he’s in investment banking”, the artist explained.

The artist describes his ‘bank’ Hardo & Co as being his “mental facade” and imagines it as being up there with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

“It brings forward that Hardo ‘is one of all of us’ in these industries,” he said.

Check out his Instagram page for some more of his work:

 

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A post shared by Hardo (@where_is_hardo)

Being the Banksy of shipping seems to pay as all 8 copies of the Baltic Degens, at €24 913 (R504 000), have been sold out unfortunately.

Dry Bulk Traders, Brokers, Ship Owners, dear shipping community, the Baltic Degens artwork is SOLD OUT.
It’ll feature in Hardo’s 2nd book, which I hope to finish ~mid 2025.
Next shipping port of call: Commodities Trading & Risk, wishfully mid 2024. See redacted 8 destinations ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/t0UJtgNoib

— where_is_hardo (@where_is_hardo) August 28, 2023

Shipping art is often confined to large prints of bulk carriers in the offices of shipping companies, but there is an art to it. Our partners at Berry Donaldson are proof of this, as they artistically navigate shipping lines, airlines, customs, warehousing, insurance, and even cargo deliveries.

Dealing with them takes the ‘Where’s my cargo?’ out of shipping.

[source:tradewinds]