Building Countercult as an artist-founder
Artist-founder Shona Neary works across art, creative direction and product. Sketchy Shona is their artist practice; Countercult connects culture to paid work.
“I’ve always loved tech.”
Shona Neary in the Shona-authored Countercult Substack post “NYC, Japan, and our thoughts on AI as creatives”, published 15 June 2026.
One person, two connected practices
Shona works across product and systems architecture, creative technology, cultural intelligence, creative direction, cultural archiving, place development, experiential work, tourism, public-sector partnerships, and market entry. Countercult is the working proof: a live platform where software, public discovery, editorial, funding experiments, artist exchange, and real-world cultural programmes operate together.
As Sketchy Shona, Shona works across oil painting, pastels, sculpture, mixed media, murals, installations, site-responsive work, and tattooing. The practice is rooted in an ongoing question about what it means to be human in a changing world, with work and collaborations connecting Berlin to Spain, the United States, Portugal, Vietnam, and South Africa.
As a founder and cultural strategist, Shona builds Countercult: a participatory map for independent artists, collectives, spaces, and the cultural exchanges that happen outside traditional institutions. The two practices are not separate biographies. The artist’s attention to place, people, and material context informs the platform and the Studios work.
AI-informed building as a creative practice
Shona does not separate the idea, the interface, the operating system, the story, and the real-world encounter into different identities. Their work moves from cultural research and creative direction into product architecture, software, public testing, production, and iteration.
Building Countercult has made that combination visible. It is not a speculative technology position. It is an artist-founded product being used to test how independent culture can be found, funded, protected, and connected without turning people into scraped content.
From freelance work to Countercult Studios
Countercult Studios is the client-facing strategy and production practice growing from that network. Shona’s work spans creative direction, cultural strategy, production, curation, audience testing, and real-world activations for teams that need to enter a cultural context with more care and precision.
The business model is deliberately connected to the career: freelance client projects create a sustainable route to build the Studios practice, while the Studios practice creates more room for artists, spaces, residencies, and independent cultural work.
Testing artist-led experiences in public
Shona is also testing their own practice as a live cultural product through two public GetYourGuide listings in Berlin: an underground art workshop and local street-artist tour, and a private atelier oil-painting or plein-air masterclass. The point is not to reposition Shona as a tour guide. It is evidence that they are willing to become the artist, host, guide, teacher, product designer, and feedback loop before advising places on how artist-led visitor experiences should work.
“Sho integrates years of professional tour guiding experience directly into their art practice.”
Quoted from the public Sketchy Shona supplier profile on GetYourGuide, accessed 4 September 2026.
The ambition is not to choose between the studio and the strategy. It is to make both practices stronger because they share a real cultural world.
Countercult Studios case studies
Shona leads the creative direction and strategy for Countercult Studios. The case-study archive shows how that practice moves from cultural insight to real-world work across brand, community, and experiential contexts.
- Quouch: from couchsurfing to a more curated connection network
- Zalando Pride in Berlin: participation without tokenism
- Most Wanted: Music and entering Berlin’s music scene
- Trackside Studios, Soweto: developing artist space exchange
- Avomind: making employer branding feel human
- Berlin Corner Shops: testing cultural relevance in everyday spaces
- Sketchy Shona on GetYourGuide: testing an artist-led Berlin experience
- Countercult Studios: the manifesto
Find the work
- Artist practice: Sketchy Shona / The Floor ↗
- Professional profile: Shona Neary on LinkedIn ↗
- Portfolio: Shona Neary portfolio ↗
- Countercult writing: Shona Neary’s author archive ↗
- Live Berlin experiences: Sketchy Shona on GetYourGuide ↗
Looking for the artist, the strategist, or both?
Book Shona for client work through Countercult Studios or visit the Sketchy Shona practice.
Public sources
- Shona Neary on LinkedIn, public professional profile.
- NYC, Japan, and our thoughts on AI as creatives, Shona-authored public writing.
- Sketchy Shona supplier profile on GetYourGuide, public provider description and live activities.
- Sketchy Shona artist biography, public practice history.
- Shona Neary portfolio, public client and professional work.
This piece was informed by Shona Neary’s writing, conversations, and thinking around independent culture, artists, and place.
editorial process: Our Journals are pulled from our writings over the years to get information out as quickly and as widely as possible, and to get to what matters: finding each other and claiming our seat in the circular economy. Some ideas overlap between Shona Neary's work on cultural infrastructure and their artist practice as Sketchy Shona. AI is a tool for infrastructure, not for creating Journal writing or artists' work. We welcome original reporting and pitches from journalists and independent publishers.