]]> http://primaryflight.com/blog/final-piece-photos-from-jeremiah-garcia/feed 1 http://primaryflight.com/blog/pf-videos-posted-on-babelgum http://primaryflight.com/blog/pf-videos-posted-on-babelgum#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:14:28 +0000 admin http://primaryflight.com/blog/?p=2127 RJ posted three videos on Primary Flight via Babelgum. The range of topics includes interviews with BOOKSIIII & El Mac, as well as the work of TYPOE, REYES, REVOK & Shepard Fairey’s largest wall to date.

Abner

Askew talks with Rime

Askew portrait

Askew

Askew

Dabs and Myla portrait

Super Smooth: Lambo visits Dabs and Myla

Dead Dads Club Corporation

Dolla

Ewok

Gaia

Hense

Jeff Soto

Jeff Soto close up

Jim Darling painting

Jim Darling portrait

Keds

Kenny Scharf

Logan Hicks and Surge

Logan Hicks

Logan Hicks painting

Mes

Mes

Nick Walker

Pisa 73 and Logan Hicks talk

Pisa 73 close up of his stencil piece

Pose

Prey

Push

Waiting out the monsoon rain that showered the area on Saturday

Retna and El Mac

Retna and El Mac

Revok painting

Revok

Revok

Revok

Revok

Reyes painting late into the night

Rime

Rime

Ron English final

Ron English pasteups

Ser2

Ser2

Steel

Steel

Surge pianting

Surge Portrait

Surge final piece

Surge

Taboo

Stacks and Dolla

Tati

Typoe

Tristan Eaton

Retna with Rian's daughter Victoria

Retna / El Mac

Revok

Shepard with Revok

Shepard with Reyes

Typoe

Original post here.

Beats™ by Dr. Dre™ and Monster showcased one-of-a-kind Beats Studio headphones tricked-out by Primary Flight artists Tes One, Retna and Santiago, which will be auctioned on www.primaryflight.com in benefit of ArtCenter/South Florida’s arts education programs. Blue Print for Space is on view until January 2, 2010, and is free and open to the public.

Taking it back to the streets, more than 100 Primary Flight artists will now continue creating live murals and installations throughout Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. Typoe, Retna, Ewok, Dolla, Blek Le Rat, Fake is Good and She Kills He are among the visionaries appropriating public and private outdoor surfaces, day and night, through December 6, 2009. Primary Flight’s base camp is located at Wynwood Social Club (2501 N.W. 2nd Ave) but artgoers should walk the streets for an authentic taste of the work in context. Key locations include:

• Spinello Gallery – 155 Northeast 38 Street, No. 101 (Santiago Rubino)
• Margulies Collection – 591 Northwest 27th Street (El Mac, Retna)
• Eazy Street Gallery – 3501 Northwest 2nd Avenue (Tristan Eaton, Jeff Soto)
• Bakehouse Art Complex – 561 Northwest 32nd Street (Depoe)
• Electric Pickle – 2826 North Miami Avenue (Aiko)
• FoCi Art Fair – 3000 North Miami Avenue (Askew, Shepard Fairey, Revok, Reyes)
• Wynwood Social Club – 2501 N.W. 2nd Ave (Jim Darling, Galo, The London Police, Kenny Scharf)

Primary Flight’s lead curator, Books IIII, said, “This evening is testament to the fact that graffiti is alive and well in Miami. It doesn’t get any more real than this. Primary Flight looks forward to taking this show on the road.”

Anything - Jim and Tina Darling

Tes One designed Beats by Dr. Dre headphones (left)

Tes One and El Mac trick out Beats by Dr. Dre headphones

Tes One - Flashing Lights

Santiago Rubino tricks out Beats by Dr. Dre headphones

Reyes - The Letter R

Retna

Primary Flight Party at Shore Club

Primary Flight artist Cruz

Mike Feinberg and Ebony Bones

Meggs

The London Police

Jim & Tina Darling

Leblon Cachaca

I Would be like Jesus by Typoe

Flashing Lights by Tes One

Fan of Santiago Rubino's Stella Octangula

Cruz of Primary Flight at Don't Sleep, The Shore Club

Cruz at Don't Sleep, Shore Club

C215 - Portrait

Blue Print for Space Opening Night

Beats by Dre packaging by Santiago Rubino

Artwork by Shepard Fairey

Ron English with artwork - Grin on Grass

Art Center South Florida

ArtCenter Executive Director Jeremy Chestler with wife Tiffany Chestler (photo credit Meg Pukel)

Santiago Rubino

Art by Mike De Feo

ARTCENTER/ SOUTH FLORIDA GALLERY
PRIMARY FLIGHT | ART BASEL 2009

On view: December 1, 2009 – January 2, 2010

Opening Reception: Wednesday, December 2, 8 – 10pm

Click here for more information about blue.print.for.space. [PDF]

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100% Known. Thanks for the support Holmes. Peep their coverage here.

]]> http://primaryflight.com/blog/pf08-on-known-gallery/feed 0 http://primaryflight.com/blog/revok-pf08-coverage http://primaryflight.com/blog/revok-pf08-coverage#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:02:35 +0000 admin http://primaryflight.com/blog/?p=391

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Besides putting together some solid pieces for Primary Flight, The Seventh Letter crushed Miami in the best way possible. Take a minute to look over Revok’s Art Basel PF08 Coverage here.

Admir Jahic, Asylm, Agustina Woodgate, Billy Mode, Blackbooks, Blek Le Rat, Boxi, Brian Sensebe, Chris Stain, Crome, Cruise, Dare, Daryll Peirce, David Choe, Depoe, Dolla, El Mac, Ewok, Frerk, Kenton Parker, Kofie, Logan Hicks, Marc C. Woehr, Mike De Feo, MSG, Brandon Opalka, Peter Fuss, Retna, Revok, Reyes, Ron English, Saber, Santiago Rubino, SRTA of She Kills He, Siner, Stefan Strumbel, Typoe, Will Barras.

More to be announced.

Please scroll down to learn more about PF08′s Artists - – - – - – - >

ADMIR JAHIC

Driven by the need to process all the daily impressions, Admir Jahic art is affected by urban symbols. Pictograms, advertising and typographic elements are omnipresent. You keep on stumbling over things out of everyday urban life such as objects & symbols out of a citiymans life or elements out of advertisement & mass media, however always alienated and very skillfully implemented.

“Many people think, artist are slightly crazy. But the fact is, they are normal, surrounded by insane lunatics who are constantly at war with one another.”

ASYLM

Involved in the graffiti movement since 1989, Asylm began his quest to develop a recognizable graff style on the walls of the Los Angeles River. Amazed to see what could be created with simple cans of spray paint, Asylm felt he could contribute a different flavor to the graff scene of Los Angeles. Understanding its essence at an early age, for Asylm graffiti was not only an art form that was economically affordable, but in a sense, an introduction to art. Asylm’s work is generally quite beautiful, combining bright colors with flourishes of metallic and pearlescent silver and gold paint.

His graff and canvas work can often combine realistic depictions of nature such as humming birds or flowers along with wild style depiction of words and letters over an abstract background.

His spirituality trances in his work and depicts that nature and the urban landscape can coexists in harmony.

Asylm.com

AGUSTINA WOODGATE

While the perspective of my works can function at the level of myth, fairy tales or secular science, they seem at times, to convey purely private codes and to spring from a self sense of making, yet they express public issues and operate on several levels of accessibility and openness. My works recurrently begin from intimate and personal emotions to become public and universal. Strong and mighty not only through the subject matter but also, just as often, through my choice of materials – Human hair, personal belongings, seeds, soft fabrics, among others.

Immerse in the passive labor which generally begins with the collection of mine or others fallen, cut or lost hairs / objects / belongings, I manage, through patient sewing, knitting, waving, romped childish drawings, exuberant sculptures, installations and performances to put together the different meanings I grant to my materials-concepts.

agustinawoodgate.com

BILLY MODE

Billy Mode’s works explore psychological, political, and spiritual issues and the bold, graphic imagery is created in response to a reality of human repression, poverty, and the challenges that exist within urbanized communities. Through his work the artist shows a strong commitment in creating work which also reflects a desire to exist in a better world.

billymode.com

BLACKBOOKS

Blackbooks is an experimental design house and Laser Fabricator located in the South of Florida. We supply galleries, agencies, museums, and artists with top quality production and materials, customized per project, using laser and router cutting, engraving, and a variety of print methods.

Blackbooks is also known as an art collective. “Our current works are inspired by hand styles, calligraphies, decay, patterns, nature, geometry, vintage iconography, and daily experience.” You can learn more about our current works and availability through Spinello Gallery.

blackbookstencils.com

BLEK LE RAT

“1981 to 1983 the beginning of the stencil graffiti art. I had the idea to use a stencil to make graffiti for one reason. I did not want to imitate the American graffiti that I had seen in NYC in 1971 during a journey I had done over there. I wanted to have my own style in the street… I began to spray some small rats in the streets of Paris because rats are the only wild living animals in cities and only rats will survive when the human race will have disappeared and died out.”

images courtesy of ©Sybille Prou

bleklerat.free.fr

BOXI

Born 1974 in Kent, England. He completed his studies at the London St. Martins school of art with a BA Fine Arts degree in painting in 1996. Boxi has lived and worked in Berlin, Germany since 2000.

Boxi creates hand cut multi layered life size stencils that he exhibits in galleries and on street walls. It is often their placement within the installation or urban landscape that completes and defines their action, enabling the work to interact with the space. It is within this collaboration that the material boundaries of the work are dissolved, affecting the perception of the image.

boxi.eu.com

BRIAN SENSEBE

Brian Sensebe(born July 20 1978) is an  Peruvian-American contemporary artist working in both the art and design fields. Based out of New York, he works with a variety of mediums ranging from illustration, painting, printmaking, animation, sculpture, and video. His work has been exhibited throughout South Florida where he grew up and Brooklyn, where he now lives. He has also been featured in publications such as Communications Arts, Creativity Magazine, IDN, and the New York Art Directors Club.

His process aims to reduce the complexity of nature and emotion into a ritual of basic shapes and symbols. Using Time, Space, and Geometry as central themes he combines elements of Minimalism, Abstraction, and

Constructivism to translate his perception of a metaphysical existence into its simplest form.

sensebe.com/art

CHRIS STAIN

Born 1972 Baltimore Md

Chris first developed an interest in art through graffiti at the age of eleven. In the years to come he learned printmaking in high school. This later lead to stencil cutting when money was not readily available for printmaking equipment.

Chris’ subject matter draws from his working class upbringing on Baltimores east side. The people he portrays in his work carry with them the struggle for a better life relative to the common individual.

Chris’ self-taught style has gained him recognition worldwide. Since 2000 he has shown in numerous galleries including places such as New York, California, Paris, London, Germany, and Amsterdam. He has also been published in several books on the subject matter of stencil graffiti and street art. He strives with his work to inspire compassion for the less fortunate of society.

chrisstain.com

CROME

Born and raised in South Florida. Originally introduced to inks and paints as the son of a professional sign painter. Through time, Crome eventually found himself immersed in his preferred form of environmental design and illustration; Graffiti. Crome belongs at the top of the short list of Miami street artists who spearheaded the graffiti movement in South Florida.

Crome’s work is an amalgam of sex, color, crime and fun.  Drawing inspiration from Miami’s clashing of tropical South Beach & seedy underbelly of Downtown Districts. Creating images that reflect the dichotomy between the beauty, style and color of the former, while balancing it with the images of prostitution, drive bys and drugs of the latter. Crome is multifaceted and multi-dimensional.  He’s an artist with a

dark past and a bright future making his mark on the vanilla, superficial Miami art scene.

msgcartel.com

DARE

TWS | Loveletters | S2R

DARE | Sigi von Koeding, born 1968 in Basel (Switzerland) Graffiti-writer since 1986. Lives since 1990 as independant Artist. Art Director Carhartt-Gallery (D)

dare.ch

DARYLL PEIRCE

Focused on exploring the connectivity within humanity and its claims of control over social systems, habitat, nature, and future, Peirce’s artwork pendulates between the satiric and esoteric, optimistic and pessimistic, scientific and spiritual, bold and poetic. Grotesquely exaggerated human forms, arterial-botanic city organisms, and flowering interconnected building clusters currently inhabit his work. On a more intimate level, his influences instinctively stem from his past and current environments, travel, exploration, skateboarding, surfing, dreaming, philosophy, and interacting with all forms of the human animal with a focused lens on the social outcast.

Daryll was born in Reno, Nevada in 1978 and misses listening to coyote songs and seeing the stars. Currently, he is living and working in Denver, Colorado.

ArtDerailed.com

DAVID CHOE

David Choe was born (1976) and raised in Los Angeles, currently residing in New York City. He is one of the most diverse and prolific artists working today. One of the youngest artists to ever have solo show at the MOCA he has had his art shown on every surface from canvases to human bodies, to third world war torn walls, his art can be found in every facet of society, from galleries, museums, t-shirts, shoes, movies, billboards, cars, murals, buildings, from New York City to the Congo, Africa to everywhere in between. A feature length documentary on his life, titled,” DIRTY HANDS: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF DAVID CHOE,” will be released this year. He still sells paintings out of his parent’s garage and his mini-van.

davidchoe.com

DEPOE

Jonathan “Depoe” Villoch’s latest work is an evolution of wild style graffiti pieces. Depoe has retained the roots of his early street art pieces and continued to incorporate intricate line work and art deco hues, but has used the cube shape to expand upon the usual symbols associated with graffiti such as stars, arrows, and cloud-like bubbles in an effort to give his mural a three-dimensional feel and challenge the viewer’s perspective. He played with the process of creating a cube, adapting to its various line forms; lines became boxes, separated lines were also boxes, and a broken line would be a fragmented piece of yet another box. While the work is a new interpretation of graffiti, it still clearly speaks to the viewer in the vibrant language of the street.

depoe.net

CRUISE

An electrically charged force wrapped in a tornado of artistic fury. This talented Miami-an was born in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. Living in Hialeah, surrounded with bad traffic and delicious coffee, the stink of the pavement mixed with inks and aerosol, acrylics and oils, covers his hands and clothes. CRUISE is always focused expanding his knowledge drives his work, keeping active is an understatement. Tatooing, working with aerosol and oils, sculpting and other mixed medias are just a few of the tools in his ever evolving arsenal.

Currently CRUISE is enrolled in an art institution pursuing a Baccalaureate degree in fine art.

cruise.via.miagraff

DOLLA

Originally from Newark NJ, this 34 yo Orlando Florida based artist is best known for his character illustration and recent Dolla Lama campaign. Aside from being a constant on the street with both legal and illegal works, this self taught up and coming artist has also began his transition from the street to the gallery. With a number of installations and group shows under his belt including Geisai, a juried show by Takashi Murakami, Dolla has proven to be a prolific artist with a unique vision. This man of few words prides himself on flawless craftsmanship and a super clean illustration style.

Dolla states: “Usually when people see my work for the first time they think its just a sticker or a silk screened print, but all my work is done using layers of stencils and spray paint.”

dollaone.com

EL MAC

Born in Los Angeles to an engineer and an artist, Mac has been creating and studying art independently since childhood. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding Mexican & Chicano culture of the American Southwest, religious art, pin-up art, graffiti, and a wide range of classic artists including Caravaggio, Mucha, and Vermeer, he began painting with acrylics as well as painting graffiti in the early 90s. He has since worked consistently towards mastering his saturated portrait style. Around 1998 he also began to paint technicolor aerosol interpretations of classic paintings by old European masters. This led to being commissioned in 2003 by the Groeninge Museum in Brugge, Belgium to paint his interpretations of classic Flemish Primitive paintings in the museum’s collection. He has since been commissioned to paint murals across the US, as well as in Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands and France. He was asked in 2007 to design the poster for the Broadway production of Xanadu. A few of his murals have become mini-landmarks, especially his recent collaborations with Retna, and have been featured in a number of music videos and publications. His work was featured on the cover of LA Weekly in 2007 for a cover story about the Seventh Letter artist collective of which he is a member. For the last few years he has been focused on creating murals, painting photorealistic canvases, creating stained glass pieces, and evolving his unique brushwork style. He lives and works in downtown Phoenix, in an old house filled with records, books and art.

elmac.net

EWOK

•Co-founder/ editor/ Writer of Life Sucks Die Magazine

•I have been doing graffiti since 1991

•One of the Founding Members of Burslesque Design (Minneapolis)

•Designed/ illustrated album artwork for Rhyme Sayers Entertainment (Minneapolis)

•Invited to ‘Disrupt the System’ Graffiti Jam in Aukland New Zealand 2003

•Member of the Seventh Letter Crew since 2002, including:

exhibiting artwork in LA, Tokyo, Tai Pei, Barcelona, and Sewon Korea

New Era/ The Seventh Letter Collaboraton

Feature in Juxtapoz Magazine’s TSL issue

•Graphic Designer/ member of the RVCA Artist Network Program 2004-present

•Writer/ Editor for Lords of Apathy blog

Participant in Disney’s Bloc 28 artist Project

lordsofapathy.blogspot.com

FRERK / Marco Eckert

December 29th 1980, Karlsruhe, Germany

I´m now striking on a new part. Starting drawing on paper, typical for an illustrator, I´m

now conquering huge walls and bigger sizes. The details, especially the patterns of my characters are particial transferred in large. So if you look closely you find these minutiae in my grand artwork, too. From small pencil sketches to colourful pictures of acryl and spraycans.

I like used material which tells a story, f.e. a metal plate that shows environmental impact. You can see the rust and oxiadtion and this fascinates me. This material is the basis of my work. Now I can use this to tell my own story on it. The chance has worked on the material and now I can bring my influence on it. And I also like the combination of different materials, wood and old papers, cardboard and create something new with these materials. Drawing or painting is freedom. It is some kind of meditation, I can create my own world and forget the environment. I like to create new creatures and every single stroke influences the whole. So often my own mood is reflected in my persons. My work is influenced by the input I get every day in a huge city.

frerklebras.de

KENTON PARKER

Los Angeles based Kenton Parker is an artist and designer. Gathering inspiration from popular culture and everyday life, Parker draws and paints a rich vocabulary of icons and motifs. He has maintained both a progressive edge and timeless style in all his work. Producing both design and fine art, Parker maintains a constant, provoking communication with his viewers.

KENT@TSL

KOFIE : Augustine Kofie

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kofie’One is a self taught illustrator, muralist & acclaimed mix-media artist. After being lured into the colorful & clandestine world of Graffiti art in the early 90′s, Kofie has maintained a respected title as a progressive style contributer to the Historic LA Street Art Movement. In the late 90′s his work began to focus on exaggerating elements of his developing organic letter-forms and structures, quickly locking down a “Vintage Futurism/ Architectype” inspired illustrations and paintings. His murals took on a watercolor like aesthetic, opposing the hyper bright/opaque styles of the day, but still retain the strength in lifework as well as dimension which he is steadily in touch with. Recent clients include Scion, Dublab.com, Playstation & Rockstar Games.

Keepdrafting.com

LOGAN HICKS

Logan Hicks is a New York-based stencil artist whose work explores the dynamics of the urban environment. Originally a screenprinter, Logan’s work gained notoriety due to his ability to capture the sometimes mundane cycle of city life in a haunting, yet refined way with his hand sprayed stencils.

Stenciling started as a substitution for screenprinting, but quickly morphed into my medium of choice. A perfect union was conceived by spraypainting stencils my subjects. The dirty and gritty nature of the spraypaint thoroughly depicted the decay of the city while the muted shine of metallic paint mirrored the faint glimmer of hope and life within the city.

Within my work, I try to draw a parallel between the cold, harsh city and a warm, vibrant organism. It is alive; a breathing creature where the people do not exist within it, but rather along side of it. It is this symbiotic relationship with the city the fuels my work. Each person is an active cell that circulates the nutrients through the city veins. I think that sometimes people do not realize how the city affects them. Each building blocks a path. Each wall blocks a view. Each door hides an opening. The city effectively blocks out the outside world and creates its own reality. The city is a labyrinth of limited possibilities. Within my work, I try to explore those microcosms that only exist in the city. The niches of city life that epitomize the urban existence. The confined spaces on subways, honeycomb living structures, the ebb and flow of people washing over the sidewalks like a rogue wave on the beach. These are the things that I notice as I walk around. I have a love-hate relationship with the city.

workhorsevisuals.com

loganhicks.com

MARC C. WOEHR

I am 34 years of age: live and work in Stuttgart. I am a multi-media artist and an instrument mechanic.

So, what have I been up to the last couple of years? Let’s start at the beginning: at first I used Aersol and painted graffiti. Pure and simple.

After that, I received calls for commissioned works from all over Europe and the USA. After a while I began taking part in exhibitions and organizing my own exhibitions. I went from the wall to the canvas. Here are a few exhibitions and TV appearances worth mentioning: Live-Acts on SWR and ZDF, exhibitions in the Ministry for Social Affairs in Stuttgart, Carhartt-Gallery and the Modart Creative Boat Party at ART Basel.

I’ve also had the pleasure to work for Hugo Boss AG, Philips Medical Engineering, Carhartt among many others. In 2004 I founded my own design agency, MFG-muster für gestaltung in Stuttgart and have been busy being both managing director and designer. My responsibilities include creating marketing strategies and concepts as well as designing corporate identities.

My favorite color is black (even though, technically, it’s not a color). I get  my strength, inspiration and determination from my family, my friends and the area i live in. I have found my way of creating and am constantly working on improving techniques to bring the “imagined” onto our spatial plane. I always use a single line as a source, letting it develop into a shape which it only seems to truly be. But, enough said: check out my portfolio. My art has the last word.

marcwoehr.de

MIKE DEFEO

Artist Michael De Feo is quintessential New York. Best known for his ubiquitous flower image, De Feo has been creating street art for over fifteen years. Not limited to the streets as his canvas, his work has also appeared in galleries and museums around the world including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; MASS MoCA; Museo de Arte, Puerto Rico; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; the A3 Art Fair, Paris; Manifesta 7, Trento/Trentino, Italy; and The National Gallery, Bangladesh, amongst others.

Michael has also been featured on the cover of New York Magazine’s “Reasons to Love New York” issue (twice in as many years) and participated in the “Wooster on Spring” exhibition at New York’s “Candle Building” which was one of the top-ten cultural events of 2006 as selected by Roberta Smith of the New York Times. In addition, Michael’s work has been featured in film documentaries, most notably Alice Arnold’s “To Be Seen” which was aired on PBS/WNET and screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006.

De Feo’s award winning children’s book, “Alphabet City: Out on the Streets”, pays homage to the classroom that is New York City – using his paintings glued on the streets of Manhattan to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. It’s now in its third printing by Gingko Press.

In December of 2007, De Feo made his curatorial debut with “Behind the Seen” at Ad Hoc Art in Brooklyn. “Behind the Seen” featured 39 international graffiti and street artists showcasing works they’re not typically known for.

Looking ahead for 2008, Michael will be participating in exhibitions at La maison des Metallos in Paris, France; Atrion in Carugate, Italy; Passport to the Arts – an auction to benefit the High Line in New York; as well as having a new print featured by the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum at this year’s Editions/Artists’ Book Fair in New York – Michael created an eight-color silk screened print along with master printmaker Gary Lichtenstein to benefit the museum as part of its Artists’ Editions series. In January of 2009, De Feo will be participating in an exhibition at Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles and in February he will have a solo exhibition at Samuel Own Gallery in Marfa, Texas.

mdefeo.com

MSG CARTEL : MIAMI STYLE GODS

In 1994, a group of kids came together bonded by their street backgrounds and their love for Art to form what would later be known as the MSG crew. Coming from little means, the group would exhibit their art the only way they knew how, Graffiti. The members of MSG were more than passionate about their art, often risking their freedom and lives to show their works. Fourteen years later, MSG has evolved into a creative collective that has evolved from their graffiti roots expanding into everything from graphic design and fine art , to retail and product design, and everything in between.

msgcartel.com

BRANDON OPALKA

Painting is a mix of cerebral meditation and a romantic desire to visualize beauty. The intricate details and shades of colors reflect my beginnings in street art and an appreciation for landscape painting in an historical context. My background as a graffiti artist influences the bold, graphic shapes in my work, while traditional landscape paintings become a blueprint for movement and light.

The landscapes I paint are enigmatic worlds derived from both organic and synthetic forms and textures. The images for my paintings come from sculpted forms and photographs that create semi-personal compositions. What I find important in my work is the language created within it.  Some of my work is completely abstract, only composed of brushstrokes. Other paintings incorporate animal figures and other objects.  Each of the elements I use are intended to tell a story. The animals, colors, lines, and strokes are the protagonists within a narrative. Although the process involves drawing, model making, and photography, the final product is oil on canvas.

When I’m in my studio, I try to free myself from any ideas, and let the work take me wherever it wants to. There’s a lot of intuition that goes into the process of painting. I don’t paint knowing exactly what everything is, and the discovery of where the language of painting takes me is part of the meaning within my work. How and where the view places the images within their own context helps define my stories. For me to go deeper into my language, I have to open myself to a variety of experiences in life.  My goal as an artist is for the viewer to be won over by the fluidity of color and form, creating an illusion and the belief that they have seen a new, real place.

opalka@artnet

PETER FUSS

Lives and works in Poland. Placing his works on billboards, bandito style, as a way to make a bitter comment on the reality surrounding him. He is not afraid to speak his mind on social taboo subjects. In his works, he examines and evaluates the present. With characteristic means, namely simple and clear form, he comments on politics, the relationships between religion and authority, flashy religiosity, social problems and art.”

peterfuss.com

RETNA

At an early age, Retna was introduced to L.A.’s mural culture. While still in high school, he led one of the largest and most innovative graffiti art collectives the city has witnessed. He is perhaps best known for appropriating fashion advertisements and amplifying them with his unique layering, intricate line work, text-based style and incandescent color palette reflecting an eclectic artistic tradition. RETNA became just as notorious for his ornate painting technique as his timeless style: he used paintbrushes mixed with the traditional spray can. Many of his pieces synthesize the line between fine art and graffiti, between power and opposition, between tradition and advancement, between the past and future.

digitalretna.com

REVOK

By Roger Gastman

The easiest way to get noticed in the graffiti world is to paint high-profile, hard-to-reach spots. But the attention doesn’t always mean respect: simply climbing a building and doing the damage means next to nothing if it’s not done well.

Los Angeles-based graffiti artist REVOK has been painting mind-blowing, seemingly inaccessible spots around the country for 10-plus years now. And he has been doing it with grace and style. Subsequently, tales of his exploits have reached folklore status within the graffiti world.

REVOK’s distinctive style has influenced countless graffiti artists, who have done their best to emulate his handiwork, forcing him to get more creative and broaden his stylistic repertoire. He has reinvented the alphabet several times over, giving his letters life and so much movement that they seem to jump off the wall. “I’m always trying to evolve as a person and as an artist, and I want my style to reflect that evolution,” says REVOK.

revok1.com

REYES

The artwork of Victor Reyes is rooted in graffiti and west coast street culture. Reyes arrived in California at the age of ten and shortly thereafter was attracted to Los Angels Graffiti  art and its community. It was among this group of artists that Victor Reyes thrived and learned the values of hard work, perseverance and of doing himself what needed to be done. The overcoming of constant challenges and obstacles has metamorphosed Reyes nto a pioneer of the both the street and gallery art alike, gaining a reputation for expressing themes of redemption, rites of passage and forgiveness in his work. Beyond that he continues to express his aesthetic and work in ethic multiple mediums including Painting, Printmaking , Apparel DesignAnd Murals and more. Reyes has exhibited across America and also internationally from Tokyo and Barcelona to Taipei and Sarajevo

reyes@TSL

RON ENGLISH

A New York-based painter, billboard liberator, and toy designer has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide for over twenty years his unique sensibility, in which the familiar is reflected through funhouse mirrors into something startlingly new. He is the subject of an award-winning documentary, “POPaganda, the Art and Crimes of Ron English.” His commentary and art were featured in the hit movie “Supersize Me,” and he has made numerous television appearances in the US, Canada, Europe, South America, and Japan.

Employing painstaking process to create art that is conceptually as well as physically multilayered, English utilizes the American symbology of his boyhood to propel unstated cultural norms just beyond the bounds of comfort into a disconcerting realm simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.

In addition to painting, Ron English is one of the seminal figures in the culture jamming movement, in which artists and activists subvert existing advertisements to encourage free thought. He has pirated more than a thousand billboards worldwide, replacing existing ads with original art, spreading his vision with an intriguing blend of humor and bravado.

popaganda.com

SABER

SABER was already a fixture in the Los Angeles graffiti scene, but in 1997 when he completed the largest graffiti piece ever created he was catapulted to global legend. His piece on the sloping cement bank of the Los Angeles River is nearly the size of a professional football field, and can be read clear as day from a satellite photo. It took 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete. In a famous photograph—taken by his father just after it was finished—SABER stands on the piece and appears as a tiny speck amid a giant blaze of color.

Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, SABER was raised by creative parents and discovered his passion for art at an early age. At 13, his cousins introduced him to graffiti when they took him to see the spray paint-covered Belmont Tunnel. And from that moment on, he was hooked. After honing his skills on local walls, SABER joined MSK, and was later inducted into legendary piecing crew AWR.

While painting graffiti is his main focus, SABER also explores other artistic avenues. He is known for his surreal landscapes, which are pulled from the deep, dark places in his psyche, and has also created groundbreaking metal and wood sculptures of abstract letterforms and painstakingly rendered hyper-realistic canvases.

Among the thousands of people who make up the graffiti community around the world, there are few names that carry the same legendary quality as SABER.

saberone.com

SANTIAGO RUBINO

Inspired as much by dreams as by chance encounters with complete strangers, his beautiful creatures with their pensive and melancholy expressions, evoke feelings of love, sadness and longing. Dark-haired figures dominate sparse backgrounds giving the impression of characters alone in the desert or even outer space. Spanning time as well as space, Rubino draws on sepia toned paper and attires his subjects in anything from Victorian dresses to S&M spiked heel black leather boots. These juxtapositions give his works a timeless quality that adds to the eeriness and universality of their appeal.

No matter their attire, the figures are stoically composed; whether they look ahead at the viewer or off into the distance their gaze is of such intensity the viewer can only begin to imagine what memory or daydream consumes them. The black graphite and the restraint Rubino employs to make the drawings reveal a dark undertone to the work that addresses the human capacity for evil and destruction in the face of beauty.

With his artwork, Rubino creates an elaborate cosmology that encapsulates his views on the interconnectivity of individuals throughout history and his belief in karma and an ever-flowing energy through which everything is bound.

Rubino, the 29 year-old, self-taught Argentinean, first known by local police and the admiring public for his exquisite graffiti paintings, is successfully channeling his energies and gaining attention in the art world.

SpinelloGallery.com

SRTA of SHE KILLS HE

coming soon . . . .

SINER

A self taught artist born and raised in Miami, Siner has been painting since 1985. He has travelled throughout the United States creating large scale murals, solely focused on an aerosol medium.

“I believe in letting the work speak for itself”

siner@miamigraff

STEFAN STRUMBEL

What the fuck is actually home, or why does the cuckoo clock end up on an Egyptian housing development?

The German word Heimat originally leads to the relationship between humans and space, now tradition meets Pop Art. Urban lifestyle implicates here the preservation of historical heritage, further to dare to find new perspectives aside from familiar paths.

Born and raised in the surrounding traditional black forest countryside Stefan Strumbel was affected by the rural environment. Apart from this fact he developed his own aesthetic sense through travelling and working in international cities. Even the forceful references from the local art society to the formerly illegal spraying town boy could not stop him from presenting his creative artwork at many different places in the world.

Patriotism implicates not only this single location in between the familiar, social environment, just like Street Art not exclusively emerges in metropolises. Both can be carried in any order to any place on earth, including the yearning and nostalgia, feelings of the addicted beholder can be individually alienated towards the Artists Work, because they offer themselves punctiliously.

Rural motives and Biedermeier flair placed at little homelike and familiar locations in a paradox manner create a contrast that lets the daily scenery appear in a different light. The unsophisticated cuckoo clock, nasty and subtly altered amidst the Egyptian housing development, on a public wall in New York, in any case at abnormal sceneries in the world, where beings live under many kinds of terms. This wants to show that we see it as the totality of life in general, in which we grow up in and see it as familiar and homely.

This happens self-sustaining from juristic and political definitions, mostly far apart from the German way of thinking about home which is often seen as a prude lifestyle; furthermore it is picked up as a trend by younger generations.

deine-heimat.blogspot.com

TYPOE

TYPOE [thai-poe] – Noun

1.) The Cats Pajamas.

2.) A Letter Junkie, Word Twisting, Alphabet, Abstracter.

typoe@miamigraff

WILL BARRAS

Will Barras is an illustrator and artist living and working in London. Born in Birmingham in 1973 he spent his formative years in Bristol. The subject matter is readily familiar, but captured in a manner that seems to jar time and space with absent mindedness, inattention and an evocative sense of exploration.

willbarras.com

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