All posts tagged: Alex Miró

Nulo Conjures “Supernatural” in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain

Nulo Conjures “Supernatural” in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain

“In this artwork, nature and its forces are represented,” says the artist of the newest “12+1” project.

NULO. “Sobrenatural”. Contorno Urbano Foundation/12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. (photo © Alex Miró)

A recent act of extreme weather in Italy inspired this new mural in Sant Feliu de Llobregat by Lucia Pintos (aka Nulo) from Montevideo, Uruguay. A huge storm had devastated an entire forest, destroying thousands of trees, scattered like toothpicks across the mountains and land.

Nulo says that she thinks of nature as a balance of two forces: dynamic and static. Despite the power of the wind to mold mountains and transform landscapes, she also concentrates on the static force of the trees roots, which hold them in place until they snap.

NULO. “Sobrenatural”. Contorno Urbano Foundation/12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. (photo © Alex Miró)

In the face of such a torrent of power, she admires the countervailing power of resistance. Of the trees and mountains and stones, she says, “They don’t give up, they don’t fall, they don’t let the wind win.”

You can see these forces at play in this abstraction that may also remind you of earth science diagrams, but this one does capture the energy Nulo is going for, capturing “Two equal forces that, at the same time, are completely different,” she says.

NULO. “Sobrenatural”. Contorno Urbano Foundation/12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. (photo © Alex Miró)

NULO. “Sobrenatural”. Contorno Urbano Foundation/12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. (photo © Alex Miró)


Contorno Urbano Foundation – 12 + 1 Project

As FUNDACIÓ CONTORNO URBANO ends another year of their project called “12 + 1”, the community-based organization expands from one wall to four. Collectively they give opportunities to artists to paint in public and to the people on the street to appreciate the processes, techniques, and motivations that artists employ in the creation. The model for engagement is similar to many yet entirely separate from previous notions of public art: an engaged responsible program that is accountable to community yet still gives wide berth to the individual styles of the artists and their need to express ideas or experiment with new approaches.

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Alberto Montes, Catalonia on Oct 1 Anniversary of Vote to Secede – New Mural “Politics of Lucidity”

Alberto Montes, Catalonia on Oct 1 Anniversary of Vote to Secede – New Mural “Politics of Lucidity”

Fresh from his residency at a nun’s convent called Creença (Belief), Alberto Montes takes on the “Politics of Lucidity” in this new mural in Barcelona here on October 1st one year after Catalan voted to secede from Spain in a vote Madrid deemed illegal.

A moody monocrome scene of people placing votes, Montes says he is paying tribute to peaceful democratic change in an era where democratic structures are under stress in much of the developed and developing world. In contrast, protesters have thrown at police a kaleidoscope of colored paints during the last couple of days in Barcelona, covering officers and the ground with aesthetically celebratory cheer.

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

“This mural reflects on the human condition and its ideals in moments of great tension and political decision,” says the Sevillian Montes, who achieves a depth of field in this scene by building up the layers and strategically masking.

It is times like these that we reexamine the fundamentals of democracies to see if they are healthy. Freedom of speech and artistic expression are often the first to go in oppressive police states so the existing of this work is a good sign. Meanwhile you can be continually reassured and hopeful because of the populist program he’s painting for, the heralded 12+1 Project in Sant Feliu del Llobregat outside Barcelona.

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Alberto Montes. “PolÍtica de Luicidez” Contorno Urbano Foundation / Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Feliu del Llobregat. Barcelona, September 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

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“Wet Paint” : TayOne for Contorno Urbano 12 + 1 says “Acabat de pintar”

“Wet Paint” : TayOne for Contorno Urbano 12 + 1 says “Acabat de pintar”

Don’t lean against that! You’ll get paint on your shirt!

Acabat de pintar.

Tayone. “Wet Paint”. Contorno Urbano. Project 12 + 1. Sant Feliu, Barcelona. April 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

In an ironic repositioning of an otherwise purposeful phrase, artist TAYONE creates a large “Wet Paint” sign on the ever changing community mural project called 12+1 in Barcelona.

Tayone. “Wet Paint”. Contorno Urbano. Project 12 + 1. Sant Feliu, Barcelona. April 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

A fan of decontextualization in perhaps a similar manner to conceptual Street Artists +MaisMenos- or Biancoshock, TAYONE says that his ironic use of the mural space is a play on the messaging in public space and the temporary qualities of sufaces that get buffed, readied for the next intervention.

“Starting from this premise,” he says, “as well as the phenomenon of graffiti erasure that entails a very powerful but sometimes involuntary plastic change, my intervention proposes to decontextualize the newly painted phrase, elevating it to artistic intervention as a rupture and continuity of the cycle.”

Yes, it’s funny. It’s also a way to reconsider the common signage and directives that can become invisible in daily life.

Tayone. “Wet Paint”. Contorno Urbano. Project 12 + 1. Sant Feliu, Barcelona. April 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Tayone. “Wet Paint”. Contorno Urbano. Project 12 + 1. Sant Feliu, Barcelona. April 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

Tayone. “Wet Paint”. Contorno Urbano. Project 12 + 1. Sant Feliu, Barcelona. April 2018. (photo © Alex Miró)

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Kazzius “In Search of the Movement” : High Speed Geometry in Spain

Kazzius “In Search of the Movement” : High Speed Geometry in Spain

Graffuturism in Barcelona today as KAZZIUS speaks geometry and abstraction on a wall for Contorno Urbano. Rapid fire planes of aqua, marine, and yellow all shoot along an invisible line, pile, collide, sub divide, reform, and continue forward in a split second. He calls this “In Search of the Movement”, but it looks like the dude found it.

Kazzius. Fundación Contorno Urbano/Kaligrafics. 12 +1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. (photo Alex Miró)

Writing graff since ’93 his interest in architecture eventually formed this fine-artist’s vector-sharp vocabulary, breaking apart letters and forms and elevating the simplest geometric shapes to center stage. Movement, depth, and the spaces in between all interplay in KAZZIUS’ balanced compositions, an insight into the jolt of energy and spontaneous practice that drives this painter.

Kazzius. Fundación Contorno Urbano/Kaligrafics. 12 +1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. (photo Alex Miró)

Kazzius. Fundación Contorno Urbano/Kaligrafics. 12 +1 Project. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. (photo Alex Miró)


KAZZIUS “In Search of the Movement” is part of Proyect 12+1 an Urban Art initiative created by Contorno Urbano in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.

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“ONCE” Deconstructs and Reconstructs His Tag for 12 + 1 Project In Barcelona

“ONCE” Deconstructs and Reconstructs His Tag for 12 + 1 Project In Barcelona

Abstraction is something we spoke recently with French graffiti writer Jeroen Erosie about in Berlin, and here in Barcelona we find that ONCE is interested in deconstruction of the revered letter form as well. Even hardcore lovers of letters like to blow them up, explode them, inflate them, deflate them, stream line and distill them to an essence.

ONCE. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Influenced by Bauhaus and Russian propaganda posters during the revolution, Catalonia born ONCE says he doesn’t really think that he is using abstract methods of manipulating his text into something unrecognizable. “Although for the general public,” he says, “these are only geometric shapes and they are more likely to think that I am painting with abstraction.” His control of aspects of fine art lettercraft reflects some of that heralded industrial society that was lauded a hundred years ago and it is somehow quite modern as well.

For his wall with the 12 + 1 project in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, we can see his fearless dedication to form, to classical graffiti and his dexterity for incorporating them into the evolving contemporary mural.

ONCE. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

ONCE. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

ONCE. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

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Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro Paint “Carmencita” Tilted at 90 Degrees

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro Paint “Carmencita” Tilted at 90 Degrees

The tea brand. The nightclub. The paella.

The dancer known as the “Pearl of Seville.”

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Carmencita is a name synonymous with the florid, proud and fanciful folklore of Spain expressed through the image of a colorful dancer. Castenets please! Flowers tossed at her feet, swirling skirt dizzying and brilliant.

While the famous dancer named Carmecita whom most Spaniards are familiar with was born in 1868 and was painted by John Singer Sargent (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and William Merrit Chase (The Met, New York) among other notable painters, her image is less that of a person than of an archetype for mural painters Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro, who were both born in the mid 1990s.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Their new collaboration on a long wall in Sant Feliú is an opportunity to paint an image on the street that is impressionist and classical, and then to almost turn it on its head.

“Neither of us know the figure in the foreground, and it does not really matter except to know that she was connected to the world of entertainment and that the public admired her,” they tell us.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

The image is compelling, ebullient and a bit of a mystery – even more so as it has been rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise along the sidewalk of this busy street.

“We decided to represent the figure horizontally because it is a perspective to which we are not accustomed and it is shocking,” they say.

Clearly it is an unusual presentation and interpretation of the image of Carmencita and perhaps it is a furtherance of the concept of a street “intervention”.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro created this painting in conjunction with Contorno Urbano, 12+1 of Sant Feliú, organized in part with Kaligrafics.

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BSA Film Friday: 05.05.17

BSA Film Friday: 05.05.17

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Stick to It, Episode 1 : Sticky Community
2. Ella & Pitr / Frappés Pinpins
3.  Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen.
4. 12 + 1 Oriol Vlat.

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Stick to It, Episode 1 : Sticky Community via Juxtapoz

“People had the same idea I had; ‘I wanna make stickers,’ I wanna put characters on stickers, not necessarily all graffiti, and we’re just gonna trade and we’re gonna put your stickers up in my city and you’re gonna put my stickers up in your city,” says artist El Toro.

“Right now it’s just like a storm.”

Running concurrently while graffiti and Street Art get most of the attention, the sticker slap game may turn out to be the portable protest that may get the most mileage in the end. Once a sly critique of the methodology of brainwashing that advertisers use, in the case of Shepard Fairey’s initial OBEY campaigns, today advertisers mix their messages in with the organic scene as a way to market to fans of it and to burnish their “street” bonafides.

As it turns out, we’ve learned that graffiti and Street Artists use the same methods of repetition and branding to get their name out and the ease and mobility of the sticker practice also means that small voices get into the mix quickly. Keeping it up depends on your industry – and many times your resources. This video highlights the organic artist culture that gave birth to and continues to grows around the stickering practice with guys like Roycer and Chris from Robots Will Kill, and naturally it slips in clothing and lifestyle brands seamlessly to sell you their products and strengthen their name.

 

Ella & Pitr / Frappés Pinpins

The French duo Ella + Pitr here revel in the simplicity of the gestural act of a full-body full-bucket splash of black paint.

Carnal, visceral, overlaid with psychographical information, the motion of splashing inky pigment across a white quadrilateral is an act of defiance and a release of the inner chaos – instantly recognizable as chaos elsewhere in the world.

The uncontrollable quality, especially when purveyed within an atmosphere of prim control, provokes amplified emotions in some. Fear, liberation, rage, release. Which ones will you experience?

 

Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen. Via Fifth Wall TV

“Don’t hide, because you are that light,” a quick summary of Herakut’s singular message in their mural at Nuart Aberdeen. Be a lighthouse bro.

12 + 1 Oriol Vlat.

A simple and clean presentation of Oriol Vlat’s new wall for the 12 + 1 project in Barcelona by video director Alex Miró.

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Anna Maga for “12 + 1” Project In Barcelona

Anna Maga for “12 + 1” Project In Barcelona

Saturday is a good day to get into your own creative projects and try stuff that you don’t have time to do usually. We always like to walk past the local walls to see what people are creating. Checking in on this community wall in Sant Feliu de Llobregat to see what’s going up in the neighborhood, we find this is the new intervention from Anna Maga at Kaligrafics.

Anna Maga at Kaligrafics. La Noche. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

A fan of graffiti jams, roller skating and figurative painting, Maga Anna is a local illustrator, mural painter, children’s educator, and commercial designer. The project is a part of a community wall initiative by Contorno Urbano in Barcelona called “12 x 1”. Have a look. Where are your paints?

Anna Maga at Kaligrafics. La Noche. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Anna Maga at Kaligrafics. La Noche. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Anna Maga at Kaligrafics. La Noche. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

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