In the beginning, there was Futura.
That’s kind of how this expansive space feels with no people in it. It is a universe created by a post-graffiti graffiti godfather who has freed his own imagination to search for new planets of influence, new centers of intelligence. Many of the New York graffiti artists who made names on trains in the 1970s and early 80s found a track to transition to the future, whether through evolving their style or reprising it again and again. When you look at the influence of 20th century fine art abstraction as it has matured on the Street Art scene of the last decade, this cat may have begun in this retro-future, and we’re now just catching up to him.
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Thirty years after he took his work into the gallery from the trainyards, Futura reminds us of the greater possibilities of aerosol as a tool for expression, exploration. The power of the works as presented is cosmic; explosive, exploratory, often serene. Fire and lava formations, oceans, suns, patterned reflections and free nebulous images as captured by powerful telescopes as they float above us. While his hand is freestyle and almost impulsive, Futura can be as selectively deliberate as he is uncontrolled. Viewed in this wide open and darkened gallery galaxy, the space-age illumination gives the works a feeling of astronomy, with each canvas a floating body in the cosmos, clearly viewed from your own porthole. But it’s clear who the north star is.
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Futura (photo © Jaime Rojo)
FUTURA – “Future-Shock”, is at the Andy Valmorbida Pop-Up in Tribeca.
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
The gallerists and merchants have begun arriving in the South Beach area of Miami to uncrate the art they’ve shipped for the enormous Art Basel and the assorted satellite fairs of Art Basel Miami 20...
An intrepid photographer who has launched a million dreams (and perhaps a few thousand careers) in graffiti and Street Art with her photography that captured crucial and seminal aspects of our culture...
With precision and guile Sandra Chevrier has painted a female world that is sophisticated, unreachable and appealing, whether painted on canvas, street mural, or stuck to a wall in the margins of a ...
A common thread ties together two buildings and two art pieces by Street Artist HOT TEA for the grand opening of the Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin (UN); Bad Dreams. And he h...
Happy Holidays to all you stupendous and talented and charming BSA readers! We thank you from the bottom of our socks for your support this year. The best way we can think of to celebrate and comm...