Mixed media with gold, silver and copper leaf on canvas.
25x25cm
(Please note, these works have highly reflective surfaces and look very different from different angles, depending on the light.)
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop  is more than a lyric it’s a creative pulse that runs through Ashwan’s work. Echoing the voices of pioneers like KRS-One and the Beastie Boys, the phrase speaks to hip hop’s unrelenting spirit: born from adversity, grounded in resistance, and always moving forward.
It’s also the title of the opening track on Paperknives and Dragonflies, the album Ashwan created during the COVID lockdown; a time when he was unable to access his painting studio. Cut off from his usual materials, Ashwan turned to sound and improvised means of making, guided by the same energy that drives hip hop itself: resilience, invention, and the will to create no matter what.
Ashwan carries the mantra (Cant Stop, Won’t Stop) through into his palimpsest paintings: layered works on paper where marks are made, buried, and revealed again. In these pieces, repetition becomes ritual, and each surface speaks of persistence; of keeping on, even when the world pressed pause.
As writer Jeff Chang captured in his seminal book Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, hip hop is a movement shaped by history, pressure, and imagination. Ashwan’s work draws from that same well: his art a testament to endurance, evolution, and the quiet defiance of continuing.
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!