According to a press sheet from the ARCO Art Fair organization in Madrid “Graffiti and other urban creations that usually stay on the outside of the mainstream comtemporay art circuits, reach inside ARCO this year”. This, along with the repercussion in the local press and TV about the presence of urban art in ARCO this year had created quite some expectation. In fact a whole section “On Youth Culture”, was supposedly dedicated to this field of artistic expressions. Besides the presence of some artists 3 conferences were celebrated with people like artist Ryan McGinness, one of the curators of the Beautiful Losers show (among a few other things): Aaron Rose and the directors from magazines Made or Giant Robot among some others. Truth is I couldn’t assist and all I’ve heard is that it looked quite like a bunch of friends talking about their things, mostly marketing, branding and so on and not so much art. Nothing wrong with that, anyways. Maybe a little too restrictive its admission policy: 45€ each one of the 3 discussions that were held precisely last wednesday, a day when only people with a professional pass could enter the fair.
Although it’s a good iniciative in the right direction I’ve found it frankly disappointing after all the buzz. It’s a pity that only one international artist with an actual background in Graffiti or any other form of art in the streets finally participated: Barry McGee aka Twist (I mean, besides Basquiat or Keith Haring pieces here and there).
Also, the rest of the artists that were mentioned in the press note were either scattered between different gallery stands or were simply artists that don’t have much to do with the whole urban art phenomenon. I guess that’s good if it’s a sign of normalization that the street artists participate in these kind of fairs on their own right and therefore have their work exhibited along other artists work in different stands from galleries both national and international. But the fact is that local artists El tono & Nuria and Nano4814, the only other artists of this kind, besides McGee that have shown their work in ARCO 06 were going to be there anyways, same as they were last year represented by their galleries (Vacio 9 for El Tono & Nuria and Ad Hoc for Nano4814) and not precisely because the null interest of the curators of the “On Youth Culture” program, Peter Doroschenko and Pedro Alonzo, in taking a look at what local street artists were doing and incorporating them to the program. In any case, for anyone who is attending ARCO these days and is interested in taking a look at the presence of Urban Art in the fair this year is really going to be quite hard, unless you know exactly the names of the artists, to find out where all this urban art is.
Barry McGee
Barry McGee aka Twist is witouth any doubt, one of the most representative and succesful artists to make a trasaction from the street to the mainstream art world. His installation in ARCO 06 (stand of London Gallery Modern Art) shows a clear continuity with his latest shows (Deitch Gallery, Rose Art Museum…) and it’s a collage of many small paintings along a wooden figure with a spraycan that seems to the the author of a huge tagged sentence above all the installation: “Smash the State” .
Barry McGee
Barry McGee
Besides the McGee installation there is a similar one, also composed of many small paintings by Clare E. Rojas and in the stand right next to it (Roberts & Tilton gallery) a bigger, intense and very impressive installation with both paintings and many photographs by Ed Templeton.
Clare E. Rojas
Ed Templeton
It’s nice to see the work of these very talented artists or others like Ryan McGinness (Galería Moriarty’s stand) that althought not really street artists or Graffiti writers, belong to a similar cultural background and generation as McGee or other artists that, we would have wished to see in ARCO too. Maybe the only problem, besides the lack of atention to local artists within the “On Youth Culture” program, has not been the selection of artists but instead the way ARCO has marketed this initiative in the press labelling the whole thing like “Big news!: Graffiti and urban art in ARCO this year!!”
Nano4814
El tono & Nuria (Pic: Tono)
Fortunately 2 pieces, one by El tono and Nuria and another by Nano4814 show the healthy estate of things with local street artists. In both cases they have chosen to paint directly on their gallery stands walls. Other pieces are for sale, although not for show, in ARCO through these galleries. But once ARCO closes next monday Feb. 13th these pieces will be destroyed. I guess it’s all about the ephimeral aspect of art in the streets. Let’s just hope that this disappointing initiative of bringing some street artists to ARCO is not ephimeral as well and instead keeps improving and increasing the number of artists in the upcoming editions.
February 10th, 2006 01:24pm
Administrador
First, a question we ask all artists we interview: When, Where, How and why did you start doing art on the street?
In fact, I started as a Graffiti Writer when I was 11, like most of the kids in my neighborhood back them (early 90’s). Since then I’ve felt attracted to the street as a medium. A couple of years ago the whole Street Art thing exploded and made me want to do similar things to those I saw that people were doing in different cities. The idea of art is a difficult thing to explain and the same applies to Graffiti or the way I understand it. For me, at least, it’s very clear that Graffiti is not art but a particular form of expression, like many others, that doesn’t intend, in its basic sense, to have an artistic or aesthetic purpose. It’s more of a coded language between the Graffiti writer and other writers. At the same time, and as Jase BA describes it in “Infamy“: “Graffiti is like a big race, but there’s no winner”. What I mean is that it’s a system that has matured and developed during more than 30 years and in a way that doesn’t really have much to do with art. As for Street art, it’s just another language for the artist-creator to communicate with his future audience.
It seems like you mostly work on paper, whether it’s for doing stickers, posters or other work you do not for the street. Don’t you ever feel the need or curiosity to paint directly on the medium, whether it’s a wall, a canvas…?
Sure, but it’s not really my priority when planning and artistic project. I think I can handle myself much better in smaller formats and that’s why I like paper so much.
What can you tell me about the “Sternenlicht” project, of the posters with the girl and the cat?
It was a project that came up with my girlfriend. She used to come along when I was going out to put stickers around and she even did some of her own. This was a project in common because we had the same sensibility when choosing the right spaces for putting our stickers and. We wanted to place these in places that we liked because of their texture, a little bit like Shepard Fairey’s discourse about showing common people the value of those spaces.
Also referring to that same thing that you mentioned before: Maybe because you use mostly paper as a medium, and although I know that the boundaries between disciplines is blurry, do you consider yourself more of an illustrator than anything else?
I find it very hard to consider myself anything in particular: Illustrator, artist, designer… I just try to do what I enjoy in every moment.
Don’t you find it difficult to get some recognition without defining more clearly what kind of artist you are?
Personally, I like the idea of always doing what I feel like and I just hope that in the long term people will appreciate what I do and the personal sensibility of the person behind it, although it might not always have a graphic continuity.
Don’t you think that precisely a certain degree of having your own marketing policy is quite necessary nowadays for many professions and for artists in particular? I’m asking because in your case, like in many others, the talent doesn’t seems to be enough to get the best opportunities around for showcasing your work or getting the nicest projects.
I absolutely agree with that. Being able to market what you are doing is very important and I’m not good at that at all because I’m very shy. Besides, I think that, because I’m constantly evolving with my style, it’s even harder. It seems like the best way is find a formula and repeat it all the time.
On the other hand I know your work with engravings and I know you enjoy these techniques very much. What’s the attractive you find in these techniques? Which ones do you prefer?
I’m mostly interested in the process it implies which is more detailed, manual and handcrafted. I’ve done etchings, silk-screen, lithography, xylography and so on and each one gives you a different kind of satisfaction. Personally I would like to do more silk-screens and xylographies.
You are also an active graphic designer. Because you usually have a client and a message to help him communicate to work with, how do you approach that apparent creative limitation? How is your graphic design work different from your purely artistic work?
When a new job comes up, mostly is a freelance thing, I try to only accept those things that I feel attracted to. I do them when I think they are challenging and I can do them under my usual criteria. I try to be very versatile when I design and I try to approach these jobs on many levels but always from my own perspective.
Precisely that position where you can choose only the jobs that you like and not having to turn away from your discourse is what many artists and designers are looking for. How can you do it?
For me it’s not so much that I’m not taking the jobs that I don’t like. I can take many different jobs because I’m quite versatile and I can adapt to the different challenges I have to face with these jobs and give an answer to them that works both for the client and myself.
You do some street work, you do your engravings and you also do design. Do you find a common feel to all these different works?
My style is always changing and also each discipline requires a different approach so I think that there is a wide field of visual possibilities.
It seems like between all the so-called street artists there is a huge diversity not purely in the technical or aesthetic side but also in the ethical sense. Where would you define in that scene? Closer to whom?
Like I said, I find it very hard to define myself. I’ve mostly done posters and stickers but I’m becoming less and less interested in those. My taste and needs have changed. I feel close to Shepard Fairey’s Obey more because of his discourse that because of his visual language. I admire Swoon’s technique and images. I love the way the process she uses for her images resembles so much the engraving technique. Also Einsamkeit for who he is and was, because of his message. His name already means loneliness and the fact that it’s German. I also like it very much. It portrays things that I feel identified with and the way his universe is strongly encoded, with those references and tributes to Bukowski, Alan Ginsberg or Muelle. I always find it very pleasant to find any of this stencils around and know he was around.
You also used to be a very active collaborator of Stickernation.net. It seems like the guy that used to run the site, TAK, couldn’t maintain it anymore so it doesn’t exist now. How was your experience with that? And because it was a website devoted to stickers, what do you feel stickers differ from other techniques?
It was a very satisfying experience because it allowed me to know the work of many other artists and at the same time show what I was doing in this city. Stickers are an easy and quick way to do stuff on the streets: Stick and go!
No matter what medium, and although you don’t seem to intend or recognize it, it seems to me like you have a coherent visual language and some elements that appear often like the skulls, the big eyed girl, the shield, the lamb… What external references do you find behind those icons that have, ultimately, become your own?
They are part of a coding and decoding process not only of the visual languages I consume but also of my own personal experiences.
Those visual languages, where do they come from? Can you detail it a bit?
Since I was a kid I’ve been attracted to many icons and images: comic book characters, the TV, the big skateboard brands from the late 80s: Powell Peralta, Santa Cruz, H-Street, Rat Bones, Santa Monica… Madrid Graffiti in the early 90’s and crews like ASR, QSC, PTV…All that has created a visual language that I0′ve assumed as my own and that makes me easier to interpret all the things that surround me now, the music, the personal experiences, the people around me…
And what about your experience in the world of art shows in galleries, art centers or similar events?
I’ve been invited to participate in some events and shows of that kind and I’ve also been part of a couple of collectives. In one occasion I had to organize and somehow curate it and… I don’t know. It’s interesting to be involved somehow if you enjoy what you are doing and it’s also interesting to see how other people behave in those occasions?
What have you been doing lately?
I’ve been very busy with work but on a more personal level, trying to find time to draw and also always trying to feed my curiosity with the things I enjoy: music, art, Graffiti… I try to be in a continuous learning state.
Any plans for the future that you can tell us about?
Many. I just don’t know how many will be done. I’d like to do some more engraving and stamping, not with the idea of editing series but purely to keep busy doing something I enjoy and that needs a certain amount of planning in advance.
It seems like since street artists, or many other artists close to that aesthetic have been getting some recognition, one of the most common ways to work outside the streets is precisely limited edition silk-screen prints.
Yes, you are right. There’s this new generation of artists that are doing series. In my case, I became interested in studying engraving techniques because I’ve always liked working on paper, whether it’s drawing, doing typographic work… and also because at that point in my life I was tired of only using the computer.
Something you want to do that it hasn’t been proponed to you yet?
I’d love to get some commission work for some kind of publication. I’ve always liked magazines and I’ve grown with that kind of publications, just like T-Shirts, which is something that I’d like to do and that I appreciate very much at a visual level.
Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting in general?
See this: ¡Andrew Brandou! and hear this: Chevron, Jega, Christian Fennesz… Gillian Welch, Cannibal Ox, …
February 1st, 2006 10:42am
Administrador
