Street Art

Subterms

    More stories

    • 50 Shares99 Views

      in Street Art

      Artist Interview: Rafa Macarron

      by

      Spanish artist Rafa Macarron is a young self-taught artist. His work leaves a touch of dreamlike influences and childish reminiscences. Despite the drama and deformity in his characters, the scenes portray tenderness, kindness, and harmony.I recently caught up with the talented Rafa Macarron and talked about his artistic influences, inspirations, and plans for 2022.Rom Levy: To begin, can you tell me a little about yourself and your background?Rafa Macarron: From a very young age I have had a pencil in my hands. When I was 4 years old, I traveled with my parents to Paris coinciding with the inauguration of the Picasso Museum. When I entered one of the rooms I asked for a notebook and colored pencils. I spent the whole morning trying to understand what was in front of me. At the age of seven I used to make drawings full of color, animals or people taken out from some unknown world. By the time I was supposed to go to college, it was the Spanish painter Juan Barjola who encouraged me not to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts.My studies as a physiotherapist have helped me a lot to know the human anatomy. I know the structure of the body perfectly. Afterwards, I started trying deformations and saw that they worked very well. It’s a bit like creating your own body characters, each with their own soul.Cycling has also provided me, not only with the desire to go beyond, but also the solitude, freedom, and also many landscapes, which have influenced my painting so much. When I used to ride a bike, I entered the same state of flow that I reach when I paint. I could be painting for eight or ten hours nonstop and not realize the passage of time.Who and what inspires your work?A small sunrise, the time I spend with my children, a walk with the dogs… To look at the small, ordinary, and daily details. It is very important to me and for my practice, to feel, perceive and keep painting to learn how to create new work. those are the little things that inspire me.Who are the characters in your paintings?The characters come out of my everyday life and I take them out of context. They could be individuals living with us. When I create them, I always like to imagine where they come from, what they do, where they go, what life they have…It is clear to me that I want to speak about life on the street, the everyday life, and my own existence. And I want to speak about these things with humor, more white than dark humor, more compassionate than cruel.I also like that the characters relate to the viewer, and I play with the formats and scales. I go from a large portrait, where the contact with the figure is direct, to panoramas in which dozens of characters seem to be starring in multiple scenes simultaneously.Although your subject engages in daily human activities and has human resemblance, they have a more cartoonish quality. What do you aim to deliver through that, and do your subjects stand as separate entities from ordinary people?My characters don’t go towards the caricature. I flee away from all kinds of cartoonish ornamentation. They are born from a fantastic, surreal, and expressionist figuration. I consider them hybrid characters that are closely related to my admiration for Dubuffet, Bonifacio, and Alfonso Fraile. My characters live in a transcended daily life, clean days, sunsets, and fresh air.What can you tell us about the flat characteristics of your work?I have always liked to transgress reality and invent like-cosmic spaces that relate to the characters. With flat backgrounds I manage to enhance the figure, and thus give more prominence to the character. When it comes to making more worked backgrounds, as it happens with the beach-scene paintings, illusions of perspectives are generated, it happens the other way around as in with the flat background paintings. I create the background and then I place the figure. I use the extremities of the figures, textures, or background elements to break with the flatness and generate volumes, textures, and a sense of perspective. Colors also help me create atmospheres, like when I use magentas to generate warmth.The materials used in my painting give me total freedom of expression. The spray gives modernity, dynamism, and color. The pencils and the marker create the weft, the waxes, the acrylics and the gouaches, nuanced transparencies and the oil brings complexity.When I saw the oeuvre you exhibited in your first solo show at CAC, the first artist that came to my mind looking at the paintings was Picasso and when I saw the sculptures, the first artist I thought of was Salvador Dali. Do they influence your work? How do cubism and surrealism come together with expressionism in your art?Picasso of course. I admire Picasso’s work much more than Dalí’s, for me he is the painter par excellence, but it is true that the sculptures can be a little like Dalí’s work because of my interpretation of the shapes of dogs. But my painting has expressionist features for the immediacy, the stroke is direct, even though I do a lot of sketch work and previous study.Following up on my last question, how does your work relate to art movements?I have had a very direct relationship with the Spanish painting, I have practically grown up in the Prado Museum, the best art gallery in the world. I am very proud to be part of Spanish painting tradition. Goya’s black paintings have always moved me, and of course Las Meninas by Velázquez, which I consider the best work.My parents are both architects, and I feel that architecture has a very important relationship with my work. I have traveled a lot to see art and have visited fairs and museums around the world. I think everything I see influences me in some way. But if I have to mention specific movements, I would mention El Paso Group in Madrid, the New Figuration or the American Abstract Expressionism as movements that have been able to influence me. I look at your work, and for a moment, I am dwelling in the ordinary moments in life, in a peaceful sense. What do you aim to deliver to the viewer?I invite the viewer to look at thigs differently as I’ve mentioned it above. I’d like the viewer to relate to my interpretation of reality and what surrounds us. I hope they experience my painting and its characters the same way I do, asking themselves: who are they? What is their life like? Where do they come from and, where do they go?I am interested in the ephemerity of paintings, do you view your own work as precious? If you are unhappy with a work, do you tend to destroy it or would you rather put it in storage for a while and alter them at a later date?No, if something doesn’t convince me, I destroy it. I don’t like to look back, I’m not capable.How does being a self-taught artist affect your style? Do you think it is liberating, or was it ever constraining?It’s always liberating.Did you ever paint a mural or have any interest to do so in the future?I’ve never been interested, really.What’s next for you in 2022?The truth is that I am very excited because many interesting things are coming up in 2022. I’m going to have a show in Los Angeles with Nino Mier gallery, I will participate in Arco Madrid and many other projects that I still cannot talk about, but that I find very exciting. More

    • 38 Shares159 Views

      in Street Art

      Artist Retrospective: Pøbel

      by

      Pøbel (meaning hooligan) is a pseudonymous Norwegian street artist based in Stavanger. He is best known for the Getto spedalsk (Ghetto leperous) project, decorating abandoned buildings in at the Lofoten islands in the north of Norway, along with notable collaborator “Dolk“.Being fascinated by the graffiti and street art movement that happened in the bigger cities, he was inspired to take this urban culture and place it in the middle of nowhere.. turning it into a strange kind of Norwegian “wild” style.“The Lovers” in Bryne, Norway, 2020Mural in Vardø, Norway, 2012Mural by Pøbel and Dolk Lofoten, Islands, Norway, 2015Norwegian artists, Pøbel and Dolk organised the “Getto Spedalsk” (“Ghetto Leper”) urban art project to draw attention to the depopulation and decay occurring in rural Norway, specifically on the remote Lofoten Islands, 95 miles north of the Arctic Circle.Over the next few years, they worked on murals on abandoned barns throughout the islands. The pieces tend to be somewhat lighthearted like Julie Andrews singing and Batman being pushed in his wheelchair by Robin.“Home” in Teriberka, Russia, 2018“家” (“Home”), is Pøbel’s piece in Teriberka. More than 100 people in Teriberka have been forced to move from their homes. This is one of many beautiful buildings scheduled for demolition this year. This makes way for development in tourism, and these vacant houses will give way to tourist infastructure, mainly for northern lights tourists from China. This piece by Pøbel encourages people to discuss these issues.Mural in Horsens, Denmark, 2013Mural in Bryne, Norway, 2015“Trump Muted” in Hollywood, Boulevard, 2016Pøbel, dressed in black and geared with a pizza box,  quickly drop a stenciled muted sign over Donald Trump’s name back in 2016 in Hollywood.Mural in Nordland County, Norway For more updates on the talented Norwegian artist, check out our #Pøbel page! More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Street Art

      Carlos Rodriguez “Primer Encuentro” Limited Edition Print – Available October 21st

      by

      Artist Carlos Rodriguez have collaborated with ArtPort for his newest limited edition print entitled “Primer Encuentro”. Primer Encuentro (First Encounter) is the painting that opens the artist’s series ‘Costumbres Amorosas de los Animales’ (The Loving Habits of Animals).The overall motif of it was to explore the similarities between human and animal behaviours when interacting with other living beings. Primer Encuentro is also a sort of fable about love at first sight. The character is naked in a mysterious and exotic jungle with Henry Rousseau’s touch. He embraces a gigantic rhinoceros, in a magical encounter, under an intense orange afternoon sun that permeates everything with a golden hue, to Rodríguez that light cast a touch of eternity and a sort of solemn happiness.Primer Encuentro comes in an edition of 30 and measures 50 x 70 cm. Technique used is Giclee & Etching on SIHL Smooth Matt Cotton Paper 320 gr.The print will be available on October 21, 2021, Thursday 7PM HK Time (7AM NYC, 4AM LA, 9PM Melbourne, 12PM UK, 8PM Tokyo) at ArtPort website.The paintings in the series all have a short text written on the back of the canvas. Rodríguez imagined the moment when two people meet for the first time as two inevitable forces colliding. The animals he related to the most were rhinoceroses with their brute and intense force, mainly because they are solitary, very territorial and practically blind creatures. They were portraited in early medieval drawings wearing strange armours. The back of Primer Encuentro (First Encounter) reads:We, two irresistible forces that have met,lonesome and armoured, a little clumsy and blind,surrendering ourselves to a greater love.Rodríguez is known for his drawings, paintings, and ceramics that explore the male body, sexual desire as a creative impulse, and issues of gender and identity. Inspired by classical paintings, naïve art and porn, his playful work reveals scenes of men naturally engaged in their games and fantasies.ArtPort is a publishing house established in 2020. ArtPort supplies limited high-quality editions and prints by artists from the new contemporary art wave. Created around the theme of travelling, ArtPort aims to have people on board, offering them a journey through the art world and an easy way to bring it to their homes. Each edition is a unique and exclusive collaboration between ArtPort and leading contemporary artists. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Street Art

      New mural by Conor Harrington in Cork, Ireland

      by

      Ardú Street Art project made a triumphant return to Cork city for their second edition, bringing some of the country’s most exciting street artists to create thought-provoking, large-scale murals across the cityscape: Friz’s “Goddess Cliodhna” at St Finbarr’s Road, Shane O’Malley’s bold and bright coloured angular shapes and colours on Lower Glanmire Road, Asbestos’ “What is home?” at South Main Street.The fourth and final piece of the current series has now been revealed, painted by Cork-born, world-renowned artist Conor Harrington at Bishop Lucey Park (Grand Parade entrance). Based in London since the mid 2000s, Harrington has created street art in New York, Miami, Paris, London, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Aalborg, Mallorca, Sao Paulo, San Juan, and the Bethlehem Wall; this is Conor’s first large-scale mural in his hometown.Harrington says, “My favourite part of Cork is the English market. I used to do as much of my shopping as possible there when I lived in Tower Street, before moving to London. And every time I’m home I’m always sure to have a stroll through and soak up some of the atmosphere. I’ve used the English Market as a starting point for my mural, the gate of which is opposite my wall. It was built in 1788 and has seen us through famine, boom and bust. In my painting, a man sets a table, a composition of fruit and veg in the manner of a lot of still life paintings from the 18th Century, when the English market and much of the Grand Parade and Patrick’s Street was built. The table is overflowing with fruit, an abundance of fresh produce that has been available in the market for years. I’ve included a doll’s house on the table to illustrate how Cork is a city built on food and how our culinary scene is one of our greatest assets. I’ve also included a fire extinguisher on the table as a reminder of the Burning of Cork 101 years ago, and that although the market was mostly spared, damage was still done.In the mural I’ve played with proportion and inverted the traditional scale of figure and dwelling to exacerbate the idea of the Georgian figure as a looming power or Lord over his domain. In my work I examine the role and legacy of the empire, and try to find parallels in contemporary culture. By including the doll’s house as a reference to home, housing and the current crisis in Ireland and the abundant fruit table which is in a state of overflow and collapse, I’m asking the question to whom does power and plenty belong? Despite this historical foundation, my mural is ultimately about the balance of abundance and excess, and the fall which inevitably follows.”Many local businesses in Cork have rallied behind the work that Ardú do throughout the city, a major supporter is Pat McDonnell Paints, who supplied the artists with some of their materials for this year’s programme:“Here at Pat McDonnell Paints, we are firm believers in how paint can transform the spaces we live in. We were delighted to support Ardú and their artists bring colour and vibrancy to Cork City.140 litres of paint tinted in over 22 colours and Conor Harrington talent and vision have given us a modern day masterpiece in a corner of Bishops Lucey Park.” – Aidan McDonnell, Pat McDonnell Paints.Commissioning artwork from home grown talent of the highest level is the main aim of Ardú, which is supported by Cork City Council and Creative Ireland, and with paint generously sponsored by local businesses Pat McDonnell Paints, and spray paint from Vibes & Scribes.In order to cover total costs for this year’s event (paying for the artists fees, painting materials, maintenance,  etc.) and to help secure the future of Ardú Street Art Project, the crew need YOUR support.Ardú’s fundraiser allows for four donation options – €10, €20, €50, or €100 – everyone who donates is entered into a raffle to win a signed photo print of artwork from the 2020 Ardú series, which featured works by artists Maser, Peter Martin, Shane O’Driscoll, Deirdre Breen, Garreth Joyce, Aches and James Earley. There will be 5 winners chosen at random and each winner can select an artwork of their choice. The raffle is available to enter online via bigcartel: https://arducork.bigcartel.com/ More

    • 113 Shares169 Views

      in Street Art

      Coverage: “Ethereal” Group Exhibition at Volery Gallery, Dubai, UAE

      by

      Last October 14th, Volery Gallery opened Ethereal group exhibition curated by Rom Levy the gallery’s Founder and Senior Curator. The show brings together a group of prominent contemporary artists whose work portrays familiar figurations to earthly experiences; nevertheless, these sceneries are preoccupied with a different world than that of the tangible here and now.The exhibiting artists include Roby Dwi Antono (Indonesia), Canyon Castator (CA, USA), Haeji Min (South Korea), Adriana Oliver (Spain), Sun Kyo Park (South Korea) , Aleksey and Anton Tvorogov (Russia), and TIDE (Japan).Ethereal explores the tension between the figures and the space surrounding them, creating a magnetic and out of this universe space, exploring themes of identity, humanity and subjectivity, creating a portal to a new dimension where the colours and the subjects come together to create an exquisite and enchanting world.Regardless of art’s origin or destination, it is an international language spoken by all different nations and cultures, Volery offers the viewer the space to examine a body of work that sheds light on various styles and techniques that are present in the progressing art movements and events.The exhibition will run until November 11, 2021 at Volery Gallery, DIFC, Dubai, UAE. Gallery hours: 1:00 PM – 7:00 PM.Schedule your visit here.Scroll down below for more photo of the exhibition and its opening night! More

    • 150 Shares109 Views

      in Street Art

      “Monumental Moments – The Hug” by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada in New York City

      by

      The internationally renowned contemporary artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada best known for his urban large-scale mural portraits and his colossal land-art pieces, has just presented his collaboration with the California based company Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. an original piece of art called Monumental Moments – The Hug, a nearly 10-foot-tall and 500 pounds bronze sculpture that immortalizes the monumental times everyone has experienced during the pandemic and celebrates the human spirit, the resilience of the mental health community and all those who have been impacted by the pandemic.Inspired by the hundreds of stories shared on MonumentalMoments.com over the past year, Monumental Moments – The Hug was unveiled on Thursday, October 7, to coincide with Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 3-9) and ahead of World Mental Health Day (October 10) at New York City’s iconic Lincoln Center.Performing during the reveal was the internationally renowned, Boston-based Me2/Orchestra, the world’s only known classical music organization created specifically for individuals living with mental illness and the people who support them. The orchestra created an original musical score to kick off the Monumental Moments initiative in October 2020.The Monumental Moments community platform and charitable initiative was created to offer hope, support, inspiration and a way for the mental health community and all those facing challenges during the pandemic to connect and share how they’re prioritizing their mental health. The Monumental Moments community is now encouraging people to share any lessons learned since the start of the pandemic, what they are grateful for and how they continue to care for their mental health. 47% of the adult population in the USA affirms to suffer negative impacts on their mental health after the pandemic yet (source KFF).“I am honored to work with Neurocrine Biosciences to join the Monumental Moments initiative and create something that means so much to me. The sculpture is dedicated to those who have been struggling with their mental health because of the pandemic and represents the importance of supporting each other during these unprecedented times,” Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada said. “Art can help bring people together, and I hope the sculpture will remind us all that we can overcome these difficult times as a community.”To usher in this time of reflection, Rodriguez-Gerada’s sculpture of a hug, developed in collaboration with international art and design foundry UAP, represents the importance of connection and supporting each other and how much many of us missed hugging loved ones during these trying times.Research demonstrates that hugging can help minimize negative emotions and support a more positive state of being. 1 The sculpture depicts two adults and a child in an embrace through a complex bronze work thought in order to create the feeling of transparency and the illusion of movement, depending on your point of view. The green ribbon woven throughout represents the importance of continued mental health awareness and support, while highlighting the significance of this year’s Mental Illness Awareness Week and World Mental Health Day.“The Hug“, by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada is also a technical tour de force: the foundry of bronze was realized using a very innovative technique called ‘the lost wax’ combined with advanced 3D printing, mixing traditional and avant garde ways of working. The primary model is built on wax directly, being an exact replica of the future finished piece which allows injecting the liquid bronze metal without filling any mold.“Last year in support of the launch of Monumental Moments, we debuted an original score to bring to life the emotional impact this time has had on many,” said Caroline Whiddon, Executive Director and cofounder of Me2/Orchestra. “This year, we are pleased to perform again and stand alongside Jorge and this magnificent sculpture to celebrate the resilience of the Monumental Moments community that has grown over time.”Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, a Cuban American contemporary artist, is recognized worldwide for his unique “urban” large-scale mural portraits that can be seen from space. By utilizing walls and floors as canvases and citizens as models, he became one of the most well-known urban artists who displays his work on walls of different cities around the world.Rodriguez-Gerada began his career in the early 90s as a founding member of New York’s Culture Jamming Movement. Since then, he has mastered his artistic directions as a muralist, sculptor and land artist. Rodriguez-Gerada has created a series of important large-scale murals, including his work in Queens, New York, memorializing the late Dr. Decoo, a Latino pediatrician who lost his life after battling the pandemic in New York City, and the Hispanic and African American communities who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.Scroll down below for more photos of “Monumental Moments – The Hug”Photo credits:  Noam Galai, Getty Images for Spectrum Science More

    • 125 Shares149 Views

      in Street Art

      “The Calm” by David de la Mano in Valencia, Spain

      by

      Spanish street artist David de la Mano just finished working on his latest mural in Torrent, Valencia. His work entitled “The Calm” depicts a great whale with a silhouette of people riding on its back in David de la Mano’s signature monochromatic imagery. The mural was painted in collaboration with artist Pablo S. Herrero.“The great whale carries a human group on it. Its passengers don’t know where they are going. Some of them trust the wisdom of an ancient being who knows the territory, others travel with the suspicion that the whale doesn’t know what her path is either. Some of them believe that the environment in which they are in can be deciphered, perhaps by others. They intuit that there were those who interpreted it before. One part of the group only distinguishes a bitter feeling of loss. They all carry something important in their hands. Everyone keep calm.”David de la Mano is known for his large dystopian murals featuring human and animal silhouettes and minimalist style. He creates distinctive artworks which are symbolic reflections on humankind and reminiscent of dark fairytales. The single anthropomorphic figures of the artist gather together and unite in an eternal and recurring movement; the individuals become the mass and vice versa, and they are driven by their dreams, ambitions, fears, vices, hopes, and internal conflicts.Take a look below for more photos of “The Calm” and stay tuned with us for more updates on David de la Mano and the international street art scene. More

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Street Art

      Clown Skateboards – Final Manifesto Drop!

      by

      Clown skateboards have just dropped the final release of decks in their ‘Manifesto’ series. In their words, via an Instagram announcement, they put out the following statement:‘We love our manifesto and what it meant to us. However, this drop of manifestos will be the end of the “here to finish what we started” run… We decided upfront that this will be the final run of manifesto’s as we have been back for a minute now and have new goals we want to fulfil.’This marks the close of another chapter in the Clown story, but for anyone following along so far, you know that it’s far from over. One of the key goals for Clown when they decided on their return, around 15 years after they shut down their doors back in the early noughties, was that they were aiming for a carbon neutral operation. They aren’t quite up to speed yet, but this is the main focus of the next act, as they explain below:‘It was obvious we weren’t going to be a fast fashion, why the fuck would you want to! Waste of ink, cloth and packaging brands that don’t understand all the various steps of the value chain and more importantly the side effects of production is a place we do not want to be in. So, we picked makers that had a lower impact, we deliberately picked printing methods that used lower discharge and packaging that was compostable at least. To date on all our apparel we can honestly say that:78% (“So not 100% perfect, but 100% on the way there”) of it is made using renewable energy100% is made using organic or recycled fibers100% comes from places that do look after the people that make it and pay them properly (that shit matters).All our clothing packing is FSC, locally manufactured, recyclable or compostable and none of it has the characteristics of a plastic bag as when that shit hits the ocean and yes 10% of all bags do – who knows why. It does break down after 2 years but in the process, it chokes marine life, we have all seen the photos…We don’t just leave it there as we also carry this over in our boards with all wood coming from forest conservations areas that maintain biodiversity in nature, all waste 100% recycled and glues that are not going to make those pressing our boards to be ill in a few years and then dump all that into our waterways. We don’t shrink wrap and all the bags we do use are made from recyclable material and can be recycled again.Obviously, these things have a cost attached to them but better than costing the earth, right? But that cost is on us, your agreement when buying Clown stuff is to wear the fuck out of it then up-cycle it or hand it on. If you buy to waste, please don’t buy from us.Two new tee drops include a triple pack of tees, and the ‘Mr Ed’ tee joins the Clown OG design, which returns for a ‘Flashlite’ special. Based around the idea of the funk band Parliament, who used to shine flashlites (aka torches, if you’re British) into the crown to shine a light on people who had found the funk. Flipping the idea into the 21st century, Clown are shining the light back on the people who support them – without you, they say, ‘we’re in the dark’.Both tee drops are part of the Clown “one of 120 products”, which means they will make 120 of these bad boys, with 20 going out to clown team members and the rest up for grabs. Fully vegan, organic, and made by people that don’t work in a sweatshop and get paid properly. Happy days.www.instagram.com/clown_skateboardswww.clownskateboards.com/shop More