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    MonkeyBird’s Majestic Murals Bend Time Through Elaborately Stenciled Compositions

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    Detail of “Le Présage,” Metz, France (2023). All images courtesy of MonkeyBird, shared with permission

    MonkeyBird’s Majestic Murals Bend Time Through Elaborately Stenciled Compositions

    December 19, 2024

    Art

    Grace Ebert

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    For more than a decade, French artists Louis Boidron and Édouard Egea have been collaborating as MonkeyBird (previously). The pair are known for their large-scale stenciled murals rich with symbolism, architectural structures, and elaborate motifs, many of which reach for timeless themes related to human emotion, experience, and the inevitability of change.

    “The Arch of Peace” is one of their most recent pieces and transforms the facade of an Aarhus building into a monumental homage to peace and justice. Commissioned for the 17 Walls Project, the mural draws on one of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to create a more inclusive and resilient future.

    “The Arch Of Peace,” Aarhus, Denmark (2024)

    “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose origins lie in France, served as our central inspiration,” the artists shared. “We reinterpreted the ornamental framework of the original engraving: angels, arches, and colonnades symbolize the moral pillars essential for stability in a constantly changing world.”

    As is typical in a MonkeyBird mural, two anthropomorphized creatures donning robes stand at the center of the composition, guarding a library based on that of Trinity College Dublin. “Their attributes of power and intellect take on true meaning only when guided by reason and ethics,” the artists add.

    Similarly mythic and majestic figures appear in a pair of murals in Fontainebleau and Metz, France, the latter of which features an avian creature holding an hourglass high in the air. Titled “Le Présage,” or “The Omen,” the piece directly points to the artist’s interest in the passage of time and collapsing the boundaries between past, present, and future.

    In February, the pair will join the Montgomery Art Project in Alabama to create a mural and immersive installation of their papercuts. If you’re local, keep an eye out for opportunities to participate in one of MonkeyBird’s workshops, which will engage the community in cutting their stencils and creating public paste-ups. Until then, pick up a print in their shop, and follow their latest projects on Instagram.

    “Le Présage,” Metz, France (2023)

    Detail of “The Arch Of Peace,” Aarhus, Denmark (2024)

    Fontainebleau, France (2023)

    Aubervilliers, France (2022)

    Fontainebleau, France (2023)

    Fontainebleau, France (2023)

    Fontainebleau, France (2023)

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      Sebas Velasco Reflects the Spirit of Brixton for London Mural Festival

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      “A Lasting Place” (2024), London. Photo by Jose Delu. All courtesy of London Mural Festival, shared with permission

      Sebas Velasco Reflects the Spirit of Brixton for London Mural Festival

      September 21, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      Drawing from photographs of landscapes and cinematic portraits, Sebas Velasco’s murals and paintings boldly capture people and places. For the 2024 London Mural Festival, the artist has unveiled a large-scale portrayal of a local resident of Brixton, where the piece was recently installed on the end of a residential building.

      Shown waiting for the Brixton train line, the young man in Velasco’s painting leans back against a concrete railing and looks off to the side, illuminated by the station’s lights, which also glow in the background. Titled “A Lasting Place,” Velasco taps into a sense of time slowing down, contemplation, and ease.

      Photo by Jose Delu

      Velasco revels in the process of exploring and learning about the places where he develops his public art pieces. The compositions emerge organically as he immerses himself in the local environment and meets people who live in the area.

      Along with his long-time collaborator Jose Delu, who assists with creating highly contrasted, vibrant photographs, Velasco draws on conversations and experiences in each place in order to reveal something of its spirit through his work. He often addresses the idea of connection, which is also the theme of this year’s festival.

      If you’re in London, you can explore more than 100 murals through September 29 as part of the event, including pieces familiar to Colossal readers like Marija Tiurina. New installations this year have been created by Aches Elseed, BAPE, D*Face, Betz Etam, Anna Ovney, and more.

      Find a map on the festival’s website, and to dig further into Velasco’s work, check out his website and Instagram.

      Wedo Goas, 39 Lee Church St

      Bezt Etam, Roundwood Estate

      Liam Bononi, 125 South Lambeth Rd

      Zoe Power, Jo Hicks, and Vanessa Scott, Canary Wharf

      BAPE x D*Face collaboration

      Sophie Mess, The Stage, Shoreditch

      Anna Ovney, Leadenhall Building, City of London

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      OSGEMEOS Unearths Their Fantastic Childhood Universe in Their Largest U.S. Exhibition to Date

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      Installation view of “Untitled (92 Speakers)” (2019), “Gramophone” (2016), and “1983 – THE BOOMBOX” (2017). Photo by Rick Coulby. All images © OSGEMEOS, shared with permission

      OSGEMEOS Unearths Their Fantastic Childhood Universe in Their Largest U.S. Exhibition to Date

      September 20, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      As children in São Paulo, twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo invented a universe they called Tritrez. The mystical place was home to myriad yellow figures with bulbous heads and lanky bodies and promoted strange, yet friendly, behavior.

      “Yellow has been a very spiritual color for us since we started drawing,” the pair told their gallery, Lehmann Maupin. “When we were drawing at our mother’s house, the sun would come through the windows, and the studio would become yellow. So we always found it mystical, peaceful, and harmonious.” 

      Installation view of OSGEMEOS, “Chuva de verão (Summer Rain)” (2008), “O abduzido (The Abductee)” (2020), “The Garden” (2020), and “The Sunset” (2019). Photo by Rick Coulby

      Operating largely as one with shared dreams and the uncanny ability to finish each others’ thoughts, the brothers work as OSGEMEOS (previously), which translates to “the twins” in Portuguese. Rooted in graffiti and street art, their works will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden later this month for their largest U.S. exhibition to date.

      Comprising 1,000 paintings, sculptures, photos, and archival objects, OSGEMEOS: Endless Story traces the brothers’ creative evolution, recreating details from their childhood bedrooms and the infrastructure and walls they painted murals on in their youth. Rarely seen sketches and early influences like their mother’s embroideries are on view alongside many pieces never shown outside their native Brazil.

      Hip-hop and breakdancing feature prominently in OSGEMEOS’ work, including in the sprawling installation “Untitled (92 Speakers).” Yellow and brown faces peer out from boxy speakers and congregate together on a pastel pink wall. A symmetric gramophone and boombox painted similarly stand on the gallery floor below and reference the artists’ enduring interest in music and its influence on culture.

      Other works lean further into the sci-fi and supernatural realms. Standing at the center of one gallery is a tall, prismatic sculpture, which depicts one of their signature figures encircled by an alien beam projecting from a flying saucer. Likewise, the 2014 painting “Tritez” unearths the more fantastical details of the imagined realm: a blue patchwork whale cradling buildings on its back flies through the sky, two siren-like characters dance in the moonlight, and a trio of figures clamber on top of one another in colorful bizarre clothing.

      “Tritrez” (2014), spray paint and sequins on wood. Photo by Rick Coulby

      “Tritrez for us is our soul. It’s our, let’s say, parallel world that we believe (lives) inside of us,” they say in a video. “We believe that everybody (has) some kind of Tritrez inside. But sometimes you forget to see and sometimes you are afraid to see.”

      The first monograph of OSGEMEOS’ work written in English accompanies the exhibition, which runs from September 29, 2024, to August 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. There’s much more on the brothers’ Instagram, so head there to dive deeper into their whimsical world.

      Detail of installation view of “Untitled (92 Speakers)” (2019), “Gramophone” (2016), and “1983 – THE BOOMBOX” (2017). Photo by Rick Coulby

      “1980” (2020), mixed media with
      sequins on MDF, 86 1/4 × 125 9/16 × 2 inches

      “Retratos (Portraits)” (2023–2024), mixed media on MDF. Photo by Rick Coulby

      Detail of “Retratos (Portraits)” (2023–2024), mixed media on MDF. Photo by Rick Coulby

      “O dia da festa de break (The
      Breakdancing Party’s Day)” (2016), mixed media on panel, 80 5/16 × 64 9/16× 7 7/8 inches.
      (204 × 164 × 20 cm). Photo by Max Yawney

      Detail of an installation view of ‘OSGEMEOS: Endless Story.’ Photo by Rick Coulby

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    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Art

      In the Wake of Tragedy, Thinkspace Projects Launches a Benefit Auction

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      Shawn & Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery

      In the Wake of Tragedy, Thinkspace Projects Launches a Benefit Auction

      September 9, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In 2005, Shawn and Andrew Hosner founded Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles’s West Adams District before rapidly expanding its program and collaborating with numerous projects nationally and internationally. The gallery showcases the best in New Contemporary art—or lowbrow—a movement that emerged in the 1990s on the West Coast partly in response to what was seen as a “high-brow” conceptual turn on the East Coast.

      The New Contemporary moveent rejected what the Hosners describe as an “inaccessible garrison of ‘high culture,’” instead focusing on subjects often often overlooked in the art world like pop culture and the subcultural. The couple’s personal collection, accrued for decades, reflects a deep-seated love for the genre. Now, hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and collectibles by acclaimed artists are up for auction.

      ROA, “Mouse in a Cage,” steel, ink, and acrylic on wood

      In February, Shawn Hosner died from breast cancer. The “ultimate gallery mom,” as Andrew described her, she was a fierce champion of artists and viewed the gallery as a family. Unfortunately, her battle with the illness wiped out the couple’s savings, which also served as the gallery’s safety net. In an effort to stay afloat, Andrew has organized the auction as a fundraiser to continue Shawn’s vision and legacy for Thinkspace.

      The auction takes place in two parts over two days: September 12 launches the main auction at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, in person, at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. On September 13, a separate online-only auction launches at 10 a.m.

      If you’re in the area, you can preview the works from today through September 13. See and bid on pieces by numerous artists Colossal has featured over the years, like ROA, Kazuhito Kawai, Lisa Ericson, Banksy, En Iwamura, Brian Rochefort, and many more.

      In memory of Shawn, a portion of proceeds from the auction will benefit the Keep A Breast Foundation. Bid now on LAMA’s website.

      Lisa Ericson, “Safe Passage” (2018), acrylic on panel

      James Cauty, “Riot Shield (Dismaland)” (2015), acrylic on polycarbonite riot shield

      Pejac, “Four Bees” (2020), acrylic and oil pastel on cardboard

      Hebru Brantley, “Untitled” (2020), acrylic and pastel on canvas

      Kazuhito Kawai, “The Magic Mirror” (2022), glazed stoneware

      Taylor Lee, “Giant Happy” (2020), glazed stoneware

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