The second series to be shown at DUVE, collages of punk rock posters silkscreened on canvas, feels right: Succo, whose first (and unending) love is music, played in rock bands all over Germany before enrolling in art school. “Art was always there,” he says, but it wasn’t until a friend spotted paintings in a corner of his rehearsal space and encouraged him to apply to Kunstakademie Düsseldorf—where he attended, followed by the Royal College of Art—that he considered a career as an artist. Today, music is entwined throughout his practice: the road cases he’s repurposed as sculptures; the Neil Young playlist at his studio; his titles, which often reference songs (like Frank Zappa’s “Beauty Knows No Pain”) that he collects for a book of poetry he’s been writing with a friend for the past five years. According to Robert Blumenthal, the Upper East Side dealer and collector who counts Succo as both one of his favorite artists and a close friend, the influence of poetry and music is a defining part of Succo’s identity as an artist. “It’s a strange combination,” he says. “A lot of these titles are coming from his poetry, and a lot of the poetry is coming from his influence as a child being on the road, being involved with rock ‘n’ roll. I think it’s a big part of his work and who he is; where he’s coming from and where he’s going.”