All posts tagged: Maximiliano Ruiz

Pejac In Hong Kong and Small Acts of Art

June 3, 2015 Artists

When it comes to art in public space it is not always about the enormous mural. Sometimes small acts of art are powerful as well.

After last October’s headlines from Hong Kong filled world press outlets with images of daily marches in the streets by youth, many wondered if this generation would be the one to advance the country toward a more democratic future. Marchers spoke openly of being dissatisfied with what they perceived as the intransigence and impermeability of political structures and a lack of social mobility among other issues.

Pejac. The Re-Thinker. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

Many in the West were surprised by the throngs of youth clogging major arteries for days and nights, even setting up camp and conversing with police in a place where dissent is typically silenced swiftly. Along with other types of speech, street art and graffiti are sharply watched according to some artists, and this February the United Nations Inter Press Service reported the results of a study naming China as the most dangerous country for artists in 2014. From this news it is safe to say that Hong Kong is not exactly the best spot to catch an aerosol tag these days, and certainly not a piece with political critique.

Pejac. The Re-Thinker. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

That’s why we were interested to see the means of expression Spanish Street and Fine Artist Pejac might employ when he told us he had just made a trip to Hong Kong. He says he thought a lot about his choices. As any Street Art watcher will tell you, context is a major criterion along with placement, and these few small interventions give you an appreciation for how Pejac perceived the tense environment, as well as how pertinent and very personal his messages were.

Pejac. The Re-Thinker. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

The Re-Thinker

A small piece made on a window in his hotel bathroom, Pejac says he chose Rodin’s Thinker as inspiration because he felt that locals are not being allowed to think for themselves. He is not sure why he had the impression; perhaps because of the rush on the street and the lack of time and space and the rhythm of the city. He calls the small piece The Re-Thinker.

Pejac. The Re-Thinker. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

Tagger

“This piece is located in Hong Kong Central, precisely on Hollywood Road 97,” says Pejac. The use of a blow torch as an art-making tool is pretty impressive, as is the dragon, a well known symbol of strength and power. The difference here is how Pejac interprets the hot-breathed tagger in a docile and pleasing fashion. “This ferocious mythical animal that can cause hurricanes and floods,” he says, “here becomes a domesticated pet.”

Pejac. Tagger. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

Oppression

Pejac’s last small but potent intervention was placed in front of the Central Government Complex of Hong Kong, he says, where last years ‘Umbrella Revolution’ protests were focused.

“The piece features the MSN Hotmail Butterfly trapped in a glass jar,” he says. “It works as a metaphor of the imprisonment of free speech and communication in Chinese peoples’ lives .
The butterfly is not killed but trapped, being able to see and feel, but left to slowly die.”

No word about what happened to the jar.

Pejac. Oppression. Hong Kong. May, 2015. (photo © @pejac_art)

Last year BSA talked to Pejac about his work and about his tribute piece to Monet, which he painted on the hulk of an abandoned ship on the coast of Canabria in the North of Spain.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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This article is also published on The Huffington Post and El Huffington Post

Maximiliano Ruiz Peels Back Layers : 14 From 2014

December 26, 2014 Artists

14-from-2014-G-animation-banner-small-3pmer

Happy Holidays to all of you charming and sparkling BSA readers!
It’s been a raucous sleigh ride with you and we thank everyone most sincerely for your support and participation this year. A sort of tradition for us at the end of this December we are marking the year with “14 from 2014”. We asked photographers and curators from various perspectives of street culture to share a gem with all of us that means something to them. Join us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’14.

Author and editor of Graffiti Argentina, Nuevo Mundo: Latin American Street Art, and Walls & Frames: Fine Art from the Streets, Maximiliano Ruiz can tell you about the intersection of the street with the gallery and fine art collections with a great deal of acumen. This year he shared with BSA readers a story that intersected Street Artist Pejac, a ship, and the exact time Monet completed a painting. Here he takes a step back to share with us the profane and profound: the elements involved in the Street Art scene wherever you are – in this case Moscow.

“Urban art can take endless forms and is constantly bringing surprises with its evolution.

But no matter what, it has always been and will always be just a very thin layer of paint on a wall.”

~ Maximiliano Ruiz

Layers in Moscow, Russia. (photo © @ches_ches)

See Maximiliano’s photos in our posting >>Monet Rising: Spanish Street Artist Pejac Impressionist Tribute on Ship

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Monet Rising: Spanish Street Artist Pejac Impressionist Tribute on Ship

October 8, 2014 Artists, Interview

The clusters of barnacles on the corroded hull of the old ship form the rocky shoreline in this impressionistic tribute to Monet by the Spanish street artist Pejac. Here on the shores of Canabria in northern Spain, he bobs in the low tide while recreating a scene from a hundred forty or so years earlier over the harbor of Le Havre, France.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

He says the tide alternately hides and reveals the work to passing vessels depending on the day. The original Monet work, ‘Impression, Sunrise” was the inspiration for the very term Impressionism that was eventually applied to an entire movement of French painters who eschewed the rigidity of realism in favor of intuitional readings of light and movement in the material world.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

‘Impression Sunrise’ is an image that has always amazed me,” says the artist as he describes how he worked with the mottled surface to produce additional effects of movement and light in Santander. “The first time I saw the Monet painting I was surprised by the title as I thought it was actually a sunset.”

According to historians, many viewers thought so at the time as well, and for a while, a debate raged about the time of day Monet painted it. Interestingly, the exact time of this sunrise was announced just over a month ago by Physicist Donald Olson of Texas State University, who has calculated the painting to have originated Nov. 13, 1872, right around 7:35 a.m. local time.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

But it’s the site specificity of this sea-vessel wall that makes this tribute so meaningful to Pejac. “I think that the rusted metallic hull of this semi-sunk ship gives life to the image. With the daily sea tides of the Cantabric ocean the work is constantly above and below water,” he says, and because of it “The sea acts as a theater curtain.”

In his studio work Pejac tenders illustration style scenes of slightly askew possibility: clever visual metaphors that repurpose everyday events and objects and venture into the fantastic and possibly treacherous world of the imagination populated with aspiration, adventure, fears and other subterraneal musings. As a street artist Pejac looks for the rips and tears in the physical world and fuses those musings with a weathered wall or a storm drain, for example, and re-imagines them as passages or windows into other imagined scenarios. Here in the sea, his impressionist tribute takes on characteristics he can’t claim authorship of, but he relishes them nonetheless.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

BSA had an opportunity to speak with Pejac and ask him about his practice on the street and how context factors into the process.

Brooklyn Street Art: How long have you been painting on the street?
Pejac: I started working in the streets in 2000 while I was living in Milan, Italy. But after leaving that great city this urge for public transgression kind of disappeared until about five years ago.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you consider yourself a street artist, muralist, or a fine artist?
Pejac: A mix of all three actually. I just do not see that much of a difference; It’s just a matter of where you paint. Never the less I am very moved by working in the public space as it is the ultimate form of giving art to people who might have never stepped into a museum or gallery. Sometimes art is seen as something only meant and understood by elite society. By making street art in certain kinds of neighborhoods you are aiming to break up this dumb preconception.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

Brooklyn Street Art: Most of your outdoor installations are designed within the context of what already exists and by adopting the existing environments and merging them with your art one can say that your installations are site specific. Do you enjoy altering the viewer’s perception with these installations?
Pejac: When doing a street work I always adapt to the very colors, textures and dimensions of the wall or whatever surface I’m working on. But as important as this is, it is also the visual and social context. Despite the fact that we live in a globalized and shrinking world where the artistic language breaks a lot of barriers.. there are still a huge variety of points of view from which to see our lives. Hence one work can have very different readings depending on the context and each work functions according to its location.

Brooklyn Street Art: Which is more difficult? Making a simple presentation, or a complex one?
Pejac: Making a work look simple is quite complex.

Brooklyn Street Art: Whose work on the street do you admire today?
Pejac: There are a few, but for example the work of the French artist Dran always makes me smile. I also find the work of the Spanish artist Aryz very different and stimulating.

‘Impression, Sunrise” (Impression, soleil levant), 1872, Oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan, Paris, Monet, Claude-Oscar | 1840-1926

Brooklyn Street Art: Are these illusionary pieces simply to entertain, or do you sometimes have a larger philosophical meaning?
Pejac: I definitely do not see my work as simply entertaining. I’m interested in making people’s brains turn, to think! It’s like I would like my work to produce the same result as when you whisper into someone’s ear. Gentle and discrete – but right into the brain… a whisper in the form of a question.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the most challenging part of creating pieces on the street?
Pejac: First: Having the freedom of choosing where, how and when to do it. Second: Having a straight-forward communication with the public. Third: Contrary to the work done in studio, this one will never be for sale.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

To see more of Pejac’s work click HERE

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

Isaac Cordal In Barcelona : His Miniature People in the Gallery

April 21, 2012 Artists, Barcelona, Features, Gallery, Spain

A grand opening for Street Art sculptor Isaac Cordel in Barcelona last week brought people in to personally inspect the miniature concrete actors he creates. RAS Gallery housed the latest collection of works presented by SUBEN and curated by Maximiliano Ruiz.

A varied group of folks gathered to the call of Street Art and free beer including some of the finest canine noses in the art world as at least 5 dogs attended accompanied by their humans.

Isaac Cordal (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

Adapting to the gallery format was a little challenging for Cordal since his small cement sculptures seemed more at home in the streets and the small incidental street locations he places them in are the perfect context to document them in. Nevertheless, the irony and depth of the message transcends the context and, in fact, can create it.

The social and cultural critique evident are as heavy sometimes as the little people, including a couple wearing gas masks to their wedding and the vision of a suicidal sculpture who chose to leap into the gallery void, leaving its pedestal empty.

Isaac Cordal (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

Isaac Cordal’s Solo Show is currently on view at the RAS Gallery in Barcelona. For further information regarding this show click here.

To learn more about Isaac Cordal’s street installations read our coverage on The Huffington Post here.

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Suben Presents: Isaac Cordal Solo Show (Barcelona, Spain)

March 24, 2012 Artists, Barcelona, Events, Gallery, Opening, Spain

Isaac Cordal

SUBEN PRESENTS

ISAAC CORDAL . Solo Show

RAS Gallery Barcelona . Carrer Doctor Dou 10
Opening Friday April 13th from 7.30 till 10 pm
Exhibition runs from April 13th till May 12th
Curated by Maximiliano Ruiz

“In 2007 the Spanish building industry used 54.2 million tones of cement. This factoid did not escape the thoughtful attentions of one very interesting Galician digital nomad, namely Isaac Cordal. Cordal saw this frenzied ‘cementisation’ of the world around him as evidence of our deep alienation from an ongoing conflict with the natural environment. So, being an artist very much obsessed with the problem of the human body Cordal appropriated cement as the tool for his own intervention in the built environment. What this means in laymen’s terms is that he used cement to make his art and in this case his art was sculptures of little people.”
Gary Shove

“Blink and you’ll miss it. Turning the urban landscape in on itself with installations that are almost to subtle to be noticed while passing by in an individualistic frenzy, Isaac Cordal uses the grey functionality of cement to question the lack of colour and vibrancy in so much of our lives through his tiny figures.”
Street Art Utopia

“Creator of a tiny community of cement sculptures hidden and isolated around the city, Isaac Cordal invites us to reflect on the sad state of the world through his art. It holds a mirror up to society by recreating scenes of our everyday modern life reminding us of the numb passage of time, the overwhelming influence of consumerism and elimination of nature. Keep your eyes open!”
Street Art London

“Wall & Frames”, Today’s Street Artists, Tomorrow’s Masters

December 10, 2011 Artists

There is an uneasy reluctance among some artists in the graffiti and the Street Art community to let themselves be seen hanging with art collectors or even entering galleries sometimes because they might lose credibility among peers for not being ‘street’ enough. Seeing well manicured men in pinstripes and shrieking birdberry women with tinted/straightened/plumped everything looking at your shit hanging on a wall and asking vaguely patronizing questions about it like you are an exquisite curiosity could make you go out and slice their tires after downing a few white wines. Not surprisingly, “keeping it real” sometimes translates to keeping it out of private collections.

Even as there is an every-growing recognition of art and artists who work sometimes illegally in the street, it’s a sort of high-wire act for anyone associating with art born in margins, mainly because it forces one to face the fact that we marginalize.

Sociological considerations aside, over the last decade there is a less traditional definition of Street Artist entering the fray. The graffiti scene originally boasted a sort of grassroots uprising by the voiceless and economically disempowered, with a couple of art school kids and the occasional high-minded conceptualist to mix things up. It’s all changed of course – for myriad reasons – and art in the streets takes every form, medium, and background. Now we see fully formed artists with dazzling gallery careers bombing right next to first time Krinks writers, graffiti writers changing gears and doing carefully rendered figurative work, corporations trying their hand at culture jamming (which isn’t a stretch), and all manner of Street Art referred to as an “installation”.

A new book by Maximiliano Ruiz called “Walls & Frames”, just released last month by Gestalten, presents a large collection of artists who have traversed the now permeable definitions of “street”, gallery, collector and museum. Admittedly, this may be a brief period of popularity for Street Art, if the 1980s romance with graffiti is any indication, but there is evidence that it will endure in some form. This time one defining difference is that many artists have already developed skill, technique, and a fan base. Clearly the street has become a venue, a laboratory for testing and working out new ideas and techniques by fine artists, and even a valued platform for marketing oneself to a wider audience.

A spread of work by Conor Harrington in “Walls and Frames”.

The resulting work, whether hanging on a nail inside or painted on a street wall, challenges our previously defined boundaries. The current crop of street art stars and debutantes, many of the strongest whom are collected here by Ruiz, continue to stay connected with the energy of the street regardless of their trajectory elsewhere. Some are relatively new, while others have been evolving their practice since the 70s, with all the players sliding in and off the street over time. The rich and varied international collection is remarkable and leaves you wanting to see more work by many of the artists. All considered, “Wall and Frames” is a gorgeously produced book giving ample evidence that many of today’s artists in the streets are tomorrow’s masters, wherever they practice.

Augustine Kofie in “Walls and Frames”.

Sixe in “Walls and Frames”.

Remed in “Walls and Frames”.

Anthony Lister in “Walls and Frames”.

Judith Supine in “Walls and Frames”.

Alexandros Vasmoulakis in “Walls and Frames”.

DFace in “Walls and Frames”.*

Interesni Kazki in “Walls and Frames”.

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada in “Walls and Frames”.

M-City in “Walls and Frames”.

Artists included are Aaron Noble, AJ Fosik, Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Alëxone Dizac, Amose, Andrew McAttee, Anthony Lister, Antony Micallef, Axel Void, Basco-Vazko, Base 23, Ben Frost, Blek le Rat, Bom-K, Boris Hoppek, Boxi, C215, Cekis, Conor Harrington, D*Face, Dan Witz, Daniel Muñoz aka San, Dave Kinsey, Der, Dixon, Docteur Gecko, Doze Green, Dran, Duncan Jago aka Mr. Jago, Eine, Ekundayo, El Mac, Evan Roth, Evol, Faile, Faith 47, Fefe Talavera, Gaia, George Morton-Clark, Herakut, Herbert Baglione, Interesni Kazki, Jaybo, Jeff Soto, Jeremy Fish, Jesse Hazelip, Johnny “KMNDZ” Rodriguez, Joram Roukes, Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, Josh Keyes, JR, Judith Supine, Katrin Fridriks, Kevin Cyr, Kofie, L’Atlas, Lightgraff, Logan Hicks, Ludo, M-City, Mark Jenkins, Mark Whalen aka Kill Pixie, Maya Hayuk, Medo & Demência, Meggs, Miss Bugs, Miss Van, Morten Andersen aka M2theA, Mr. Kern, Mudwig, Nicholas Di Genova, Okuda, Patrick Evoke, Paul Insect, Pedro Matos, Peter Owen, Pose, Pure Evil, Remed, Remi/Roughe, René Almanza, Retna, Ripo, Ródez, Sam3, Sat One, Shepard Fairey, Sixe, Smash 137, Sowat, Sten & Lex, Stephan Doitschinoff, Tec, Tilt, Troy Lovegates aka Other, Turf One, Vitché;, Wendell McShine, Will Barras, and Zosen.

The launch; “Walls & Frames” will be presented at Gestalten Space Berlin on December 15th.

BSA Holiday Giveway

December 7, 2011 Artists

The Prizes for the “BSA Holiday Giveway” 2011

December 5, 2011 Artists

This year for our Holiday Giveaway we are giving out the following gifts. Our winners holiday wishes will be unveiled during our “12 Wishes for ’12” from December 20-31, along with 7 artists wishes. Here’s a look at the prizes that were donated generously for the big giveaway.

PRIZE Descriptions

PRIZES

THE DEEEELUXE PLATINUM BUCKET: This prize will go to the first submission we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Twelve Wishes for 2012” this lucky reader will also get:

A copy of “Eloquent Vandals”, by Marte Jølbo and Martyn Reed.
Your very own “Ca$h for Your Warhol” sign, by Street Artist Hargo
The Pantheon Prize Pack, by Street Artists infinity and Adam Void
The GRAFFITI & STREET ART Feral Diagram Poster

THE GOLD PLATED BUCKET: This prize will go to the 2nd submission we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Twelve Wishes for 2012” this lucky reader will also get:

A copy of “Walls & Frames :Fine Art from the Streets,” by Maximiliano Ruiz
“Rocket Pop Boy”, a silk screen print by Snyder & Gregory Siff (of an edition of 21)
The Pantheon Prize Pack, by Street Artists infinity and Adam Void
The GRAFFITI & STREET ART Feral Diagram Poster

THE SILVER PLATED BUCKET: This prize will go to the next TWO submissions we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Twelve Wishes for 2012” these lucky readers will also get:

A copy of “Walls & Frames :Fine Art from the Streets,” by Maximiliano Ruiz
A copy of “PANTHEON:A History of Art From the Streets of NYC” by Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo
The Pantheon Prize Pack, by Street Artists infinity and Adam Void
The GRAFFITI & STREET ART Feral Diagram Poster

THE BRONZE PLATED BUCKET: This prize will go to the final submission we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Twelve Wishes for 2012” this lucky reader will also get:

A copy of “Street Art New York,” by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
The Pantheon Prize Pack, by Street Artists infinity and Adam Void
The GRAFFITI & STREET ART Feral Diagram Poster

SHOUT OUTs: Maximiliano Ruiz, Daniel Feral, Joyce Manolo, Adam Void, Snyder, Gregory Siff, Geoff Hargadon, Marte Jølbo and Martyn Reed. Your generosity is truly appreciated.

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