The eruption of southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull caused chaos over the last week and I think many of us will know some one effected. Escif’s show at Pictures on Walls was short of 30 Spanish visitors who were meant to arrive for the opening night. Friends of mine also found themselves stranded in Chicago, while other mates valiantly managed to get to places like Georgia overland… It was a reminder of the power of nature and how much we take air travel for granted.
My favourite response to the crisis was from Dran (a French artist who I am a big fan of) who e.mailed me the following picture… which I hope he doesn’t mind my sharing because I think its just great…
Escif is an artist I was first introduced to in 2006 by Blu, who recommended him for inclusion in the Street Sketchbook book. Since meeting him back then in Barcelona and the publication of Street Sketchbook, Escif’s work has continued to grow and develop. Constantly painting and producing, his techniques have become honed over time to a minimal but elegant style while his ideas have also become stronger – at times surreal, usually very funny, clever and approachable.
Photo above: Escif painting the POW shutters last weekend.
Years later it’s been an pleasure to invite Escif on behalf of Pictures on Walls to create a show at POW’s showroom space. He has been working on the show for the past 5 months so its packed with ideas and very exciting to see it come together this week.
A little background about the artist:- Escif’s home is Valencia where he began painting on the streets since around 1997. Inspired by the Graffiti movement he describes his work as a kind of contemporary mural painting.
Valencia has proved to be the perfect training ground for Escif’s art, as unlike Madrid or Barcelona it’s possible to paint quietly in the city centre without prosecution. The faded walls and abandoned spaces of Valencia’s historical streets also provide the perfect textural backgrounds for Escif’s work.
Around 90% of his street paintings are illegal but he has also organized legal public mural projects with friends and on behalf of the University of Valencia. Escif’s output is prolific, painting pieces each week in his home city and on travels to Morocco, South America, much of Europe and Cuba.
Photo above: Mural Painted in the Truman Brewery courtyard, London 2010
I was greatly looking forward to seeing new work by Belgian artist Roa this week and his show at Pure Evil gallery did not disappoint. I love his use of found objects in these pieces – something that he began developing at his last show at Galerie Iterance in Paris.
Roa is one of the artists I have featured in my new book Street Sketchbook Journeys due out this September. The book design and text was completed last year but the production time always takes a while until we have a finished book. I really enjoyed writing about Roa’s work for the book and it was a pleasure to devote a large chapter to his sketches and finished work.
I don’t want to wear out the book before its published but here is a snippet of the chapter text…
“For Roa animals represent so many things; some animals are honored or execrated by cultural meanings, some are metaphorical for sin or for hope, humans consider some as dirt, others as beautiful. “It’s an open theme,” he explains “you can make your own story with them. I was more attracted by the everyday animals that live next to us; like these little rodents, domesticated rabbits, bred pigs, cows. They are integrated in our western culture in many ways, but it feels estranged when you see them painted on the street. To show them totally out of proportion or out of real life scale it gives them something surreal, sometimes a bit dubious too… I really like the ambiguity of images and of implicit meanings, and I can’t deny I am fascinated by the circle of life, sometimes in a peaceful morbid manner.”
I was first properly introduced to Brazilian Graffiti through Ignacio and Louise at Lost Art. In 1999 they sent me copies of Fiz magazine – a magazine designed by Os Gemeos – the magazine completely blew me away! At the time very few gringos were aware of the exciting graffiti scene that was developing especially in Sao Paulo. Twist had spent some time in Sao Paulo in 1993, meeting Os Gemeos which became a two way exchange of ideas. But it wasn’t until Sonik and Raven from 12oz Prophet visited Sao Paulo in 1997, who subsequently did a big feature on the scene, that graffiti writers worldwide become more aware of Brazilian Graffiti.
Sonik aka Caleb Neelon and Lost Art went on to be my partners for the Graffiti Brasil book – so it was great today to hear news via Lost Art’s twitter of a rare film surfacing of the legendary 12oz Prophet visit…
Image above: Sonik, Os Gemeos and Vitche from Caleb’s website.
Abundantly creative is perhaps the best way to describe Vhils, a young Portuguese artist who constantly innovates with new techniques and approaches to his art.
I’ve long been a supporter of his work – and was lucky enough to be able to invite him Cans Festival in 2008. It was also a pleasure to feature his work in depth in my next book which will be published later this year.
For the uninitiated, Vhils’s current work is about revealing images through deconstruction (in the demolition sense – construction in reverse). By stencilling, stripping away billboards and chiselling into walls; Vhils creates new images that reflect the random decay of the streets. At the same time Vhils’s uses portraiture to evoke the lives and ghosts of people who make up the history and life of our cities.
I was very excited to see Vhils new work in Bogota, with thanks to the Memoria Canalla team. It is a city I found fascinating and great to see that Vhils was able to leave his mark there.
Thanks to Terence Jones exhibitions officer at Leeds College of Art for organising a show of Choque Cultural prints at the college. He sent me a few snaps of the prints in situ and they look great…
Two artists who have consistently excited me over the years are Nunca and Blu. Nunca was one of the artists we featured in Graffiti Brasil and while we were working on the book (in 2004) both myself, Caleb and Lost Art thought him the artist most likely to break through. At the time Os Gemeos, Nina, Vitche and Herbert Baglione were already known abroad, but Nunca was still young and unknown outside of Brazil. Finally in recent years, partly through the Tate Modern street art exhibition Nunca really has deservedly broken through to International recognition. Blu was one of the superstars of Street Sketchbook – it was really fantastic to see and learn about his sketchbooks for that project in 2006 – and every year since then its been a joy to watch him continue to grow as an artist.
Today I came across a collaborative street piece on Nunca’s flickr painted in Moderna, featuring both of them. I absolutely love this… Nunca’s severed hand, a metaphor of colonial bloodshed and exploitation in society, meets Blu’s faceless robot.. the matrix has broken…
I hope they get to paint together again soon… perhaps at Fame Festival this year
This post comes a little late - Hugo Kaagman’s book Stencil King was published in November 2009 by Lebowski Publishers. I was honoured to be asked to write the introduction to it. I first got to know Kaagman’s work on an art college trip to Amsterdam in 1986 – I was blown away by what I saw – hundreds of amazing stencils making up a giant mural in Waterlooplein. I guess this is where I first got the bug for Stencil Graffiti. Many years later I was able to invite him to take part in one of the biggest ever stencil art gatherings – Cans Festival underneath Waterloo station. The book is well worth tracking down to see a life in stencils by the stencil kind himself….
Having become interested in Chicha posters recently I stumbled across a Peruvian Street artist called Faber who uses these posters as a backdrop to his work.
A great use of found surfaces and colour contrasts for this emotive subject.
