Empowering creatives to give our oceans a voice.
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If so, we want to connect with you!
Submit your work today to be considered for future Sea Walls projects.
Get InvolvedArtist and creative director Aaron Glasson's diverse portfolio consists of vibrant murals, paintings, illustration, films and interactive installations. He is from New Zealand and now lives in San Diego, California. His work is autobiographical, inspired by his life, life encountered and the sometimes inexplicable nature of being. Exploring the coexistence of the unseen and the observed. He holds a BFA from Auckland University of Technology. Aaron has also been part of the PangeaSeed Foundation family since its inception and acts as Creative Director for the Organization.
As much as the current paradigm wants us to believe, the world is not actually black and white. Humans are not black and white. We are nuanced and messy random lines on crumpled paper. By un-crumpling the paper and making the smallest sense out of graphite on a smooth surface I hope to re-contextualize the photos I use to tell a new story that shows the depth of humanity we can witness when we slow down and take in the strokes and lines that create us.
When I add color it becomes a contrasting element that shifts my internal narrative about what it means to be human in a world socially defined by polarity. My desire is for these emotive portraits reveal the truest human self: evolved and nuanced.
When you first meet Alex Yanes, you are struck by how laid-back and approachable he is. Born in Miami, he is the product of both the ever-evolving, fast-paced city and the burgeoning art scene. Yet, he is as real and approachable as they come. In a city filled with wild characters and over-saturated personalities, Yanes is refreshingly humble, preferring instead to let his vibrant and colorful artwork take center stage.
And it does.
Since he decided to pursue art full-time in 2006, his work has become his autobiography, speaking volumes about who he is and what he has seen. A son of the city, his story is influenced by his Cuban roots and an ever-growing curiosity about all the things Miami had to offer him during the 80’s and 90’s. Yanes’ work is the result of years spent immersed in skateboard, tattoo, hip-hop and rock culture during his teenage years, but says he felt the stirrings of creativity at a young age. He won his first art contest at age six and claims that one of his greatest accomplishments was building his own tree house at the age of 10; a feat he accomplished with the knowledge and tools imparted on him by his father and grandfather.
Now a father himself, Yanes spends his time making art and raising his family in the city that raised him. Where he once worked on canvas, his art has taken on a life of it’s own, coming alive via wood, acrylic, resin and enamel into three-dimensional installations. Each is a unique view into Yanes’ history and love of all things art and have caught the eye of art aficionados and corporate collectors alike. He has worked with Adidas, Red Bull, Sony, The Learning Channel, Vans, Kidrobot, UsTwo Games, Delta Airlines, Coca Cola, and Rag & Bone. His work has been acquired and collected by institutions such as The Long Beach Museum of Art, Fidelity Investments and Capital One.
And because he supports the city that cultivated him as an artist, he has made it a priority to work with local foundations where he can help children and ultimately bolster their love of art. He has worked with St. Jude’s Hospital, The Dan Marino Foundation, Miami Children’s Museum, NBA Cares, The Miami Children’s Hospital, and The Children’s Trust.
Whimsical and yet relatable, Yanes’ art embodies innovative use of color and imaginative subject matter and speaks to collectors and new art lovers, alike. His work has been a staple in Wynwood’s art district since it’s inception and has also been exhibited at by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin, Australia and Japan.
Alexandra Underwood is an illustrator, designer, and muralist. Born and raised in Maui, Hawai'i, she is influenced heavily by the saturation and beauty of the world around her.
Alexandra received her BFA in Illustration with high distinction at the California College of the Arts. After working as in house graphic artist and CMF developer, she is now making the dive into freelance illustration and public art. She is currently living in Emeryville, California.
Alexis Diaz is a Puerto Rican painter and urban muralist, known for his chimerical and dreamlike depictions of animals in a state of metamorphosis. Inhabited mostly by phantasmagorical animals, Alexis Diaz’s captivating murals are characterized by a very detailed technique and line-by-line precision. Diaz’s signature style is the use of tiny black brushstrokes on white to render his creatures, making them look like highly-detailed pen-and-ink drawings. These ‘drawings’ stand out all the more for being set against their bright teal, blue, and sunset-colored backdrops. He has a preference for wild animals, in general, more specifically those living in the Savannah, as he blends them in a fantastical image with creatures from the depths of the oceans, replaces paws with tentacles and wings with hands.
Alyssa Irizarry is an artist and Program Director at Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, a Boston-based nonprofit that works to engage teens in ocean conservation and advocacy through the arts. Alyssa has been involved in environmental education for 10 years, with a focus on using creative media as a tool for environmental literacy and conservation. She is particularly passionate about helping students of all ages discover and explore their relationship with water systems. Alyssa holds a BA in Art History and Environmental Studies from Tufts University.
Amanda JOY Bowers is a visual artist born and raised in Haiku, Maui. She attended Wake Forest University as a Presidential Scholar for Distinguished Achievement in Art, a University Ambassador for the Arts, and a Richter Scholar for International Independent Studies. While attending Wake Forest University, Amanda studied old master painting as a certified Louvre copyist in Paris, France, and then conducted independent research on the art of Balinese woodcarving and Javanese batik textiles in Indonesia. She graduated in 2012 with a major in Studio Art and a double minor in Art History and Entrepreneurship. She now is a freelance fine artist, independent contractor, and the owner and designer of Skelefin Studios, LLC.
Born in Atlanta to Thai and Indonesian immigrants, Amanda studied neuroscience at Columbia and worked at an Alzheimer’s research lab before becoming a full-time artist, educator, and activist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her explorations of feminism, science, and community have reclaimed space in museums and galleries, at protests and rallies, on buildings, highway tunnels, and subway corridors, as well as on the mainstage of two TED conferences. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, and on the cover of TIME magazine. In 2020-2021, she was artist-in-residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights and her work has been acquired into the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of the City of New York and the Library of Congress.
Amandalynn is a San Francisco based Muralist, Fine Artist, Conservator, and Art Director. Inspired by the female form and spirit, Amandalynn depicts strong, seductive women and illustrates their strength through line work and decorative patterning. Her works can be found in Galleries and Streets all over the world. She began developing her distinct Street Art style mural work in 2001, painting alongside the infamous graffiti collective, The Seventh Letter. Amandalynn is very passionate about her outdoor mural work and still enjoys collaborating with a variety of different artists, as well as creating large solo works. In recent years she has been Art Directing a large music and arts festival called KAABOO. Amandalynn has always enjoyed curating and assisting other artists in their work, making Art Direction a natural path for her. Fine Art also plays a key role in Amandalynn's life, as she continues to develop her career as a Gallery artist. She has a Bachelor's of Fine Art from the San Francisco Academy of Art, and has worked alongside professional conservators within her career. Amandalynn believes that sharing the creative process with others is the key to living an inspired life.
Amok Island (born Amsterdam, 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist from the Netherlands, based in Fremantle, Western Australia and if he weren't an artist, he would be a biologist. Heavily inspired by early naturalists’ scientific illustrations, his work embodies the accuracy and precision representative of technical drawings, used for identification purposes.
The theme of natural exploration and conservation is a strong and constant undercurrent of Amok Island’s artistic practice. His lifelong fascination with nature and her relationships and history with humankind drive the artist’s obvious appreciation and obsession with his subjects and his urge to direct the attention of his audience to them.
Amok Island pursues a point of balance where minimal shape and color remain capable of realistically representing a subject. To accomplish this, he renders his subjects to near bare minimum geometric elements of form and places paramount importance on the use of a carefully considered color palette.
Amok Island has created murals in over 25 countries worldwide and exhibited his work in Australia, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Andrea Huelin is a painter who takes her inspiration from the often-overlooked stuff of everyday life. Using loose brushwork, Andrea creates unlikely oil paintings from quirky scenes and juxtaposed objects that have presented themselves by accident. A former journalist, Andrea is interested in observing and recording what she sees, giving pause to fleeting moments and offering new ways to observe the ordinary. She has held a number of solo exhibitions and has taken part in group shows in Cairns, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Her portrait of Stanley Jones AO is on permanent display in the Cairns Supreme Court. Andrea is a member of the National Association of Professional Portrait Artists.
Angelika Wallace-Whitfield (born 1993, Nassau, Bahamas) is a visual artist and curator. She attended the College of The Bahamas before transferring to the University of Kent to complete her undergraduate education in History & Philosophy of Art. She returned home in 2017 to manage curatorial work at both The Central Bank of The Bahamas and The Current: Bahamar Gallery and Art Center. Angelika is now a self-employed artist, specializing in murals and other public artworks.
Apexer, also known as Ricardo Richey, is a street artist who creates colorful abstract patterns through the use of spray paint. Part of the Gestalt Collective that engages in collaborative murals in San Francisco, Apexer curated mural projects on Bluxome Alley, other districts of San Francisco, and the SFMOMA display windows in association with St. Johns Community Center (San Francisco, 2002). His work has been shown extensively both in the Bay Area and abroad. Recent group exhibitions include Calligraffiti: Writing in Contemporary Chinese and Latino Art, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA (2009); Bay Area Now 4, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2005), White Walls, and the Luggage Store Gallery. He was the artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2007), and was featured in documentaries and publications regarding the Mission District in San Francisco.
"Arlin is Brazilian, based in Detroit and São Paulo. He was born in the city of Tatuí, in the countryside of São Paulo. As a child, he loved to play with wood blocks, putting things together and then dismantling them again in a small woodshed where his father passed his time making birdcages and other small objects with wood.
As a teenager, specifically at the end of 1999, Arlin began with graffiti, painting trains in his neighborhood. In 2007, he graduated with a degree in industrial design. A year later, when he moved to São Paulo, he combined this passion for art with design, while he worked as an art director in various advertising agencies.
Quickly, Arlin began to piece together a type of deconstructionism, inspired by his childhood in the little woodshed. He created a very distinct style, giving life to his abstract creations that seem to be emerging from a digital work.
Beyond just painting in the streets, the artist moved toward fine arts and began to study new possibilities. Each time in a more elaborate form, animals are Arlin’s principal theme, creating a species of synthetic nature fragmented by the influence of the modern technological world.
Today, in addition to canvasses, his elaborate paintings are executed in large scale around the world, bringing a little more of color to city walls."
Artists For Humanity (AFH) provides under-resourced teens the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design.
AFH is built on the philosophy that engagement in the creative process is a powerful force for social change, and that creative entrepreneurship is a productive and life-changing opportunity for young people.
Bridging economic, racial, and social divisions, AFH enriches urban communities by introducing young people's creativity to the business community.
A team of teens, including teen leaders from East Boston, and their mentors, created a youth-driven, designed, and painted mural for Sea Walls Boston in 2020.
"Askew One (Elliot O’Donnell) is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist hailing from the capital of the South Pacific, Auckland, New Zealand. From his roots in his city’s graffiti scene during the early 90’s, he became one of the key figures known internationally from the region. Additionally he has been an integral part of the scene through organizing Auckland’s first graffiti festival, setting up multiple gallery spaces and publishing both a magazine and book showcasing New Zealand graffiti art.
Since 2010 Askew One has evolved his art practice more into the Urban-Contemporary or Post-Graffiti realm, focusing on studio work and large scale outdoor murals. Along with long-time friend and contemporary Benjamin Work he was integral in defining the term Post-Graffiti Pacific, to describe Urban-Contemporary or Post-Graffiti artists based in around the region or dealing with themes related to that specific geography and it’s cultures and history.
Askew One’s current work is a mixture of text and portrait based work concerned with themes of the human diaspora and it’s driving factors. Focusing mostly on painting, he draws heavily from his background in graphic design, still and moving image to create meticulously detailed portraits over layers of bold mark making. He utilizes many crude makeshift tools that became familiar through his experience in painting graffiti."
Bask is the moniker of one, Ales “Bask” Hostomsky, who, along with his parents, emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Florida and began to soak up America’s popular iconic imagery along with the sun.
Bask quickly began to notice similarities between the communistic iconic propaganda from his youth and his teens' consumer advertising. He soon discovered that they were simply two sides of the same coin. Each vying for our short-lived attention spans, all the while selling us (or telling us?) anything and everything from Marxism to McDonald's. Seeking conspiracies -and finding them embedded in the mass media's popular iconography, Bask began painting bold, media critical broadsides to assuage his fear of being manipulated. A fear cultivated in a repressive regime had now returned but to the most unlikely and safest of places- The American living room.
Beastman (Bradley Eastman) is a multidisciplinary artist from Sydney, Australia. Influenced by the biodiversity, symbolism and design aesthetics behind nature’s repetitive geometric growth patterns and organic landscapes, Beastman's paintings, digital illustration, commercial projects, and public murals explore a unique visual language, depicting future environments of abstracted landscapes, potential new life forms, and human intervention. One of the most distinctive and prolific emerging contemporary artists from Australia, Beastman has exhibited his artworks extensively around the world, has curated and organised numerous international art exhibitions and projects, and has been commissioned by the likes of Element, Facebook, Vivid Sydney, Mini, Apple, Westfield, Red Bull, Stockland, Hyundai and more. His artwork was recently acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, and his extensive solo and collaborative mural works can be found all over Australia and around the world.
Working in a variety of mediums, Stanton’s public work takes the form of large scale murals, mosaics, stained glass, and multimedia animations. Heavily informed by historic ornamentation, mythology, and the classics, his work seeks to draw parallels between past narratives and contemporary human issues such as climate change, environmental conservation, and post-industrialization. The imagery and themes are always site-specific and closely tailored to the locale of the artwork, involving research and scouting of the surrounding area with a goal of creating work that is a direct response to its environment.
Ben Johnston is a creative director specializing in art direction and custom typography for advertising, murals, installations, and events helping bring to life numerous types of projects. In addition to running the studio, he is continuously creating new fine art pieces to be shared in exhibitions. Raised in South Africa and currently splitting his time between Canada and the US, Ben has also been involved in various conferences and mural festivals around the world. As a multi-disciplinary artist & designer winning numerous awards for projects with Fortune 500 companies to working with a variety of NGOs, his main focus is on finding unique approaches to each opportunity drawing on inspirations from his encounters throughout his travels.
Originating from Hong Kong and residing in New Zealand, Berst is a graffiti artist, educator, and researcher based in Auckland. Berst locates his work in the graffiti art movement and features a combination of traditional and contemporary typographic based influences. Working predominantly outdoors he creates large scale abstract graffiti pieces and incorporates both his worlds of education and urban art into his innovative teaching program at Unitec Institute of Technology. Alongside his graffiti practice, Berst creates illustrative work in the studio setting which overlaps into the Post-Graffiti Pacific paradigm. This body of work explores local mythologies, symbolisms, global visual culture, and themes with a greater socio-cultural emphasis. His educational accomplishments include a Bachelor of Design, Post Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching, Post Graduate Diploma in Education, Masters of Education, and he is currently in his final year of his PhD in Education.
Bianca Burrows is a mixed media commercial artist based in Tampa, Florida. Whether she is painting on a traditional canvas or crushing massive walls with stencils and a spray can, her work is intentionally customized for each customer. BBArt merges traditional acrylic paints with various unique materials, such as custom-designed stencils and collage paper, to create a unique and recognizable style, which is best described as refined NY street-art. Her signature approach to street-art is visible in all of Bianca’s pieces. Bianca draws on the inspiration of her clients’ visions and her personal creativity to create these vibrant, crisp, bold pieces. In 2019, Bianca created The Promise Tree Project to give kids a creative outlet and a safe space to work on self-expression through art.
Founded in Brazil, in 2005 the duo composed of Douglas Castro and Renato Reno were mostly inspired by rock posters at the beginning, they became internationally famous for their large-scale public artworks, typified by highly-expressive line work and bold color palettes. Drawing a lot of female characters, they often produce surreal and psychedelic temptresses characteristic of this group i the manual work, the care with the typography and the drawing of girls, a lot of girls always with a dose of psychedelic and unique humor. They collaborated with lots of brand such a Nike, Absolute, Converse, Vans and participated to some of the major Art event such as Life Is Beautiful in vegas Pow Wow Hawaii, Coachella festival, Mural festival in Montreal and realized the biggest building ever painted in Los Angeles.
Brian Butler is a Miami based illustrator, designer, and muralist. He graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a BFA after completing an eighty-four stop tour of every miniature golf course in Massachusetts. Before moving to Miami, he held production roles with a touring college campaign for Microsoft and with Cut&Paste, a global design tournament focused on showcasing emerging designers' process in front of a live audience.
In Miami, he fell into a design position at CP+B for several years before pursuing a freelance career as The Upper Hand Art, Inc. Somehow, amidst these positions, Brian has built a reputable career in murals, design, and illustration and has collaborated with brands such as Vice, Target, Tumblr, Red Bull, Converse, Superfly, Madison House, The Miami Heat, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Music is central to his identity, and as a non-musician, he has been fortunate to contribute back through his art. Besides creating a mountain of merchandise, album art, and promotional material for labels and musicians, he’s also drawn over 2000 live performances while standing in the audience. He’s deemed this act of drawing shows “Show Drawn,” which has brought him throughout the country and even out to sea. He has illustrated SXSW, Bonnaroo, Clusterfest, Governors Ball, Pickathon, Form Arcosanti, Project Pabst, Riot Fest, Ultra, the late Motorhead Motorboat, and many stand-alone shows.
As a curator, he’s organized group exhibitions on the topic of both Ice Cream People and Flags, respectively, and spearheaded an independent publication called The Miami Palmist, meant to position local musicians as guides to South Florida. Behind the scenes, he’s consulted and organized numerous artist-driven activations for brands and agencies.
Brian Hebets is a visual artist, born and raised in San Diego, CA. A graduate from the Art Institute, he specializes in digital and traditional arts, ranging in style from Urban Abstract and Surrealism to Photo-realism. His inner motivations stem from his childhood, watching horror/sci-fi classics and the Discovery Channel, influencing his dark, nightmarish images. His passion for the ocean began early in my childhood and has progressed ever since, with sharks forming an important part of his art practice. The most feared and misunderstood creature we have on this planet, The more he has learned, the more fascinating they have become to him, and he aims to paint these animals to remind the world of the beauty they possess and how vital they are to our Marine system.
Bronte Naylor is an Australian artist based in South East Queensland. Since 2011, she has been exhibiting her illustrative works in galleries and as large-scale artworks in public spaces. Naylor completed a Bachelor degree in Creative Industries, majoring in Visual Art at James Cook University, Cairns. In 2016, Naylor undertook a residency at First Coat Studios, Toowoomba, where she established a full-time art practice.
She is currently completing her Honours degree in Visual Art at the University of Southern Queensland, where she is investigating contemporary painting and memory theory through digital and physical applications. Her creative processes are influenced by the continuity of memory and its relationship to time. Naylor observes how the human mind returns to retrieve memories, warping them in this process.
National collaborations with First Coat International Art Festival, Sea Walls Australia and Big Picture Festival have seen Naylor firmly positioned as an emerging heavyweight in Australian public art.
The artist Bruno , also known as "Smoky", dedicated his life to visual art. Since childhood, drawing and creativity was always part of his daily routine. In 2004, he began painting on walls with spraypaint in Brasilandia where he grew up, a precarious neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Smoky has gained international and professional recognition through his artistic journeys though out Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Argentina,Paraguay,Sweden,USA, England and Canada. He is always in search of artistic exchanges, learning and teaching art is part of his life style. He has worked in various organizations and NGOs teaching the history of graffiti and its role in society to at risk youth. He is the coordinator for the Essencia Arts Collective, and a founding member of the Clandestinos Crew. Recently, Smoky has moved to Toronto, Canada together with his wife and artistic collaborator, Shalak, and continues his art practice.
Caia Koopman is a preeminent pop surrealism artist who has been featured in prominent galleries from California to Canada and France. Over the years, her paintings have graced the walls of Thinkspace, Spacejunk, and La Luz De Jesus Galleries as well as the pages of numerous books and magazines. The appealing symbols in her work evoke fundamental human emotions in exquisite, surreal detail making them well received in the action sports industry as well as the fine art world. Signature series Oakley sunglasses and goggles are adorned with her designs while her illustrations gild designer Rossignol snowboards, skis and more.
While attaining her BA in Fine Arts from the University of California in Santa Cruz, Caia was a skateboard enthusiast immersed in the punk rock scene of the ‘80s. She continues to live in Santa Cruz where the youthful vitality of a college town is an ever-present, pulsating force. Her professional career began by creating designs for skateboards and snowboards. Enchantingly beautiful female characters in her paintings are imbued with this fearless sense of defiance. As a second-generation conservationist, loving the environment and acutely aware that humanity is dangling our planet over a dangerous flame of pollution, nature is often woven into the haunting fabric of her images. Birds, flowers, plants, butterflies, animals and mythical creatures are interlaced with iconic symbols of love, mystery, soul searching and timeless values. Lurking throughout these visual fantasies are “Día de los Muertos” skulls, cute yet macabre reminders of the interlocking yin and yang of life and death.
Koopman’s popularity stems from the dazzling, intricate dreamscapes that depict deeply-rooted subconscious themes flavored with contemporary culture. Feminine energy infused with power and daring is blended with delicate elegance. An edgy juxtaposition of seemingly contrary ideas and emotions is persistent, and reflects the uneasy balance we maintain with our 21st century lifestyles. Technology coexisting with nature. Vulnerability accompanied by strength. Streetwise sensibility embodied in dainty, tattooed nymphs. Whimsy in spite of pathos. Vibrant life hand in hand with death. These fundamental aspects of the human condition, surrounded by the elements of modern life, all flowing through gorgeous imagery, are the essence of Koopman’s masterpieces.
Caitlin is a freelance illustrator and mural painter based in Toronto, Canada.
She has created visuals for various non-profit and community organizations whose main focus is on food and agriculture and has spent time working in urban gardens and organic farms across Canada. Her work is inspired by plant lore and personal stories, exploring moments of self-reflection and growth.
Please contact for mural and illustration commissions, freelance opportunities and more!
Cara To AKA “Caratoes” is an illustrator and street artist born in Belgium and based in Hong Kong. Her artwork combines mind-blowing neons with swirling, sensitive linework that have a mesmerizing gestural quality. Cara has worked in many different areas, including animation and game design, and her artwork spans many mediums and genres while retaining a strong recognizable character. Some of her recent projects include hand-made 3D hologram illustrations, paintings that are accented with geometric string-work and GIFs that are nothing if not visual candy.
"Fine artist, muralist, photographer, and writer with a few hundred other secret talents, Carly Ealey has a knack for all things creative.
Born in Palm Springs, CA, Carly’s mother recognized her artistic interest at an early age. “I remember my Mom telling me to remember my ""new birthday"" so that I could take the big kid art classes where the minimum age was 8,” Ealey reflects. “The instructor mentioned to my mom a couple of times that she had never seen a child that kept their workplace and hands so incredibly clean...it wasn't until later in life when I learned that getting messy was necessary.”
Today, Carly Ealey considers her art to be a mix of dirty and clean. ”I often destroy the initial creation before bringing it back to life, adding and subtracting until it feels right. There is a great beauty in the imperfections that make the final product acceptable to me.” With a natural inclination to painting the familiar figures of women in her work, Carly prefers acrylic ink on wood panels when painting small, and spray paint when working on murals. However, she also incorporates her photography from time to time on a larger scale via wheatpaste. You may have seen her blown up black and white photo installation of a welder in his studio on F Street outside of SILO during its early phases."
USA
"Case is the alias of Andreas von Chrzanowski an artist from the German graffiti scene who was born and raised East Germany. As early as 1995, he began painting with spray cans, and he uses this medium to make photorealistic images of body forms and portraits. case is one of four members of the Maclaim Crew, founded in the year 2000. Maclaim is known for having established photorealistic works with spray cans in Germany. case’s artistry usually includes people or the human body. He removes them from their normal environments, changes them, and then displays them within a new context, one that has also been modified. This enables him to replace the traditional idea of what beauty represents by controversial, grotesque images; these create nothing less than a very unique form of fascination for the beholder.
One of the most poignant aspects common to all of case’s works is the texture of the surfaces he uses. They are painted on a background that is made from pieces of cardboard of various sizes. Most of the cardboard comes from the packaging of the spray paint cans and they are held together with glue, staples and tape. Sometimes bits and pieces of wood are also glued onto the surface, such that a bumpy, one-of-a-kind surface appears. This structure is diametrically opposed to typically overblown, perfectionist images and it gives case’s works their unique character."
"Celeste Byers is an avid nature worshipper and enthusiast of the existential from Ocean Beach in San Diego, California. Her work conveys the mystical in the everyday and magic beyond what we can perceive. Inspired by the natural world, inter-dimensional realities, ordinary life, and the subconscious mind, her work takes form in a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, music, muralism, and experiential installations.
Since graduating with a BFA from Art Center College of Design in 2012, she has been traveling and working as an artist, freelance illustrator, and muralist with a variety of individuals and companies including the New York Times, Warner Bros, American Express, PangeaSeed, Medium.com, and Lucky Peach Magazine. She has painted murals in the United States, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia."
Working and traveling extensively throughout Aotearoa (New Zealand) and around the globe, they create visual stories that connect us to the whenua (land) and to the tangata whenua (local people) we encounter along the way. Their creative practice is the outworking of their passion for their Māori heritage presenting it in an urban context that features modern interpretations of cultural design along with native/endemic birdlife.
Charles is a founding member and president of the world championship winning crew TMD (The Most Dedicated), a collective of creative individuals who continue to push artistic boundaries and who have been global leaders in the urban contemporary art field over the past 20 years. His accolades include winning the world Ono'u Graffiti Festival Tahiti 2015, being one of only three New Zealand artists to be fully sponsored by Ironlak spray paint while traveling the world painting as a family team member including the Guinness Book of Records worlds longest graffiti scroll Dubai in 2014.
Janine is one of Aotearoas' first female urban artists' and a member of TMD and has spent the past 15 years painting and developing community art activations and projects with a strong focus on youth interaction and community engagement. Recent works include mana whenua endorsed projects in the Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) region working within the Wynyard Quarter building precinct. She also featured as the Matariki Festival 2016 opening artist completing a rain art installation outside the Britomart Train Station and a projection mapping work onto the historical St James Theatre. Together they were invited to attend the Festival of Pacific Arts Guåhån 2016 as members of the Aotearoa delegation and have worked on numerous creative festivals including the Auckland Arts Festival, Artweek Auckland, Matariki Festival, Tāmaki Herenga Waka Festival, Pasifika Festival and Ono'u Graffiti Festival Tahiti/Ra'iātea.
Married with four children, whanau (family) and hapori (community) are an integral and important part of our full-time artistic journey. We believe that a work of art is not only the finished product but includes the relationships you build along the way with the people and communities you encounter.
Charlie Johnston aka C5 grew up in Manitoba’s Interlake and calls Winnipeg home. To him, the open skies of the prairies are the penultimate canvas; never a misplaced stroke, perpetual poetry. Perhaps it was the sheer scale of this inspirational canvas that called him to mural work, perhaps it was his time as a sign painter that permanently altered his sense of scale. He does know that he's always seen both sides of every story, the perennial middleman. He believes that it is this character trait that allowed him to simultaneously develop multiple skills and styles in painting, sculpture, mixed media and digital technology. It is this same trait that has allowed him to work collaboratively on public art projects and develop his art into an independent business practice. He is an artistic corporation. A weapon of mass creation. Consciousness is the true canvas. Creativity is the greatest superpower.
Konecki is self-taught and constantly experimenting. He is known for completing large scale aerosol murals, fine artwork including paintings and miniature sculptures, as well as various public and private site specific installations. Konecki's work is explorative of social consciousness, generally irreverent, and focused on subjects that are both serious and absurd. His use of found and 'repurposed' objects in his work advocates the reassessment of typical ideals of function and beauty. Elements of nature often collide with harsh urban landscapes and elements of street art and graffiti, symbolizing the ongoing struggle between the harmonious coexistence of these two competing monumental forces.
Christie Wright is a self taught multi disciplined visual artist, who predominantly produces mural works for a vast range of clientele all across New Zealand. Christies signature use of bright colours mixed with fluid patterns is easy on the eye but still supplies the viewer with an extreme amount of detail to lose yourself in. Having showcased her work in several successful exhibitions over the years Christie has shifted more into mural works over the past year and has started to paint outside the galleries, out in the streets.
"Cinzah Merkens is a New Zealand based multidisciplinary artist, event producer, curator and father of two, based out of Napier, Hawkes Bay.
Cinzah paints from and for his environment, often expressing his views about pressing environmental issues, with a strong sense of colour, movement and balance. His work also explores themes such as the interrelationship between man and nature, duality, mythology and story telling.
Cinzah has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand, also showing work in group shows, festivals and mural productions in Australia, Mexico, North America, Canada, Japan, South East Asia and the Caribbean."
Claire Foxton is an emerging Australian artist, muralist, and designer. Claire’s art practice explores the apex of visual design, fine art and street art through a hybrid of figurative and abstract works using traditional and improvised techniques. With a mix of self-taught and formal education, Claire has established a unique style centered around photorealistic subject matter, color, shape, form, and texture. In 2016 she painted her first large-scale mural triggering a love for public art, its accessibility and the inevitable exchange it creates between the artist, artwork and the local community.
Mexico
Taum considers himself a lifelong student in the Oceanic art movement and has mastered its traditional and contemporary forms (ranging from large-scale public murals to traditional Hawaiian tattooing and carving). In his youth he made a name for himself creating graffiti that echoed the ancient styles and philosophies of his motherland, Hawai’i.
Originally from the UK, Cracked Ink has been part of the New Zealand street art scene ever since he made the move down under 10 years ago. Cracked Inks quirky, character-based art is bold and eye-catching, whether it be an art piece from a gallery or a mural in the street. Predominantly an aerosol artist, Cracked Ink also utilizes other creative avenues which include, sketching, painting and sculpting which have been some of his favourite mediums to work in over the past few years.
Cryptik creates from a palette of wonder, where all science, math, and true art spring from equal mystery. His is a clear-eyed art practice of more questions asked than answered. The Southern Californian creative’s intricate, almost trance-inducing works—be they on mammoth walls, slap stickers, or hanging in galleries—find voice in images of spiritual universality. By his hand, Eastern philosophical thought and mantras hypnotically merge with the black letter bombing of cholo writing. The ancient and the sacred marry in a modern quest—through art—for conscious awakening and awareness.
Bridging graffiti and fine art through an often aggressively crude lens, CYH Jayson’s work revolves around themes of Taiwanese nationality, sex, religion, and desire – resulting in Keiichi Tanaami-like hallucinatory colors and textures, paired with an appetite for the grotesque.
Street artist DALeast joined a graffiti crew after growing disillusioned with his conservative art education in China. The artist, who doesn’t reveal his real name and whose pseudonym has no true meaning, created paintings, sculptures, performances, and installations as a member of China’s Wuhan group. DALeast primarily paints animals with an amalgamation of layered, fractured lines juxtaposed against shadows. The energetic creatures appear to jump off the walls. His murals, which are often hundreds of feet long, are inspired by the South African landscape and grounded in the Chinese emphasis on the spirit. DALeast uses art to express emotions and to address the tension between natural and artificial spaces.
"Danae Brissonnet is an international artist from Quebec, Canada who specializes in public murals, illustration, mask making and puppetry.
Creating imagined worlds for the viewer, her art invites a deeper consideration into the power of symbolism, myth, and metaphor. Brissonnet’s art enforces connections between her work, herself, and the public in which it engages. Most importantly, her process is about becoming involved in communities where she can tell stories of the people, their land, and their culture.
Wherever Brissonnet is creating there is likely to be a workshop, where she can share her experience. She seeks locations where art is not accessible and finds importance in working with children to empower them to paint their stories with whatever materials they have. Brissonnet's professional illustration work is what enables her to travel to these conflict zones and rural communities. Leaving a colourful trace, her has a feeling of accessibility as she visually translates her story, and that of others. Brissonnet’s work exists as an imprint of change and inspiration for places she feels need it the most."
David Houghton is an artist based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. He uses a combination of techniques from formal styles and traditional hand-painted signage, to graffiti and realism. Inspired by pushing boundaries to create more meaningful works that represent his love for the natural environment, often combining animals and natural elements of color.
Houghton has produced a diverse range of creative commissions including photo-realistic portraits, scenic underwater, flora and fauna murals, modern contemporary pieces and vibrant street art that can be seen across SEQ. He also publishes Australian mural and art magazines - Clouded Thoughts and Blank Canvas.
David was born in Aspen, Colorado where he lived until he graduated from high school. Living in Aspen helped David develop a passion for art and the surrounding environment, and spurred his love for the outdoors. After high school David moved to Boulder, Colorado where he received his Bachelors Degree in Studio Art. His pursuance of art and design has led him from Colorado to San Francisco to Portland, Oregon where he now resides. In 2013 he met up with artist Blaine Fontana and began a rigorous internship for the next year. This experience gave him a huge insight into the professional art world and fostered his blossoming career into what it is today.
The goal of David’s work is to create environments that exist beyond the parameters of our physical world. His style blurs the boundaries between what should and shouldn’t exist together by bringing subjects into surroundings that they wouldn’t normally interact with. These scenes are often combined with graphic color and patterns in an effort to provide a harmony and balance to the opposing forces. His aim is to create new relationships between the subjects and the viewer.
David has done projects for many large companies such as Patagonia, WeWork, Wacom, and Radisson Hotels. He has also been featured in Contemporary Art print and online publications such as Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoz, American Art Collector and more.
"Dirty Bandits is a small, Brooklyn-based design firm specializing it typography, lettering and illustration run by Annica Lydenberg. Work done by Dirty Bandits is fueled by Annica’s deep appreciation for type, her interest in story telling and dedication to brands and individuals working for social good.
In 2011 she decided to pursue typography further and was part of the inaugural graduating class from Type @ Cooper, a one year program in typeface design at Cooper Union in New York. Having had enough of the computer, from Brooklyn Annica went to San Francisco to begin to learn sign painting at New Bohemia Signs.
Her artwork is inspired by traditional show card writing, 90s hip hop and her love of puns. She works with computer, painting, chalk, screen printing, and pen and ink, pulling stylistic influence from an ever growing photographic library of found type and vintage and contemporary signage."
When not shooting tree gaps and landing the cover of Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, professional skateboarder Dolan Stearns is making art.
Much like his skating, his artistic styling is unmistakable. Often using a minimal palette with a stippling technique to achieve shading, Stearns’s subject is an eclectic array of nature scenes, animals, found objects, and of course, his unusual imagined creatures.
Dragon76 is a Japanese street artist who lives in New York, United States. Technique: Dragon76 creates spectacular murals with its unique style full of vitality and passion. His work touches the soul, reflecting on “the coexistence” of opposites such as past and future, stillness and motion, evil and justice.
Draya Madú is a passionate Mexican painter and enjoys expressing her ideas along with her feelings on any surface but especially on huge concrete walls. She has the firm conviction that a better world can be created through urban art and murals.
Her learning was self-taught since childhood, always in continuous search for new techniques, meddling in books, in the living works of the great masters of pictorial art but above all the pure instinct that arises from her emotions and end up crashing on the walls, canvases, wood, paper, fiberglass, mud, ceramics.
She is passionate about working in communities in vulnerable areas because she is convinced that one of the ways of bringing art and educating artistically and culturally is the approach of people to art through murals and their participation in them.
She has the conviction that art can be used as a powerful tool for social change. She is inspired by the complexity of the human being and his eternal internal struggle to manifest his feeling in society.
Throughout her artistic career, she has participated in several international muralism and urban art festivals as well as group exhibitions in various parts of Mexico.
Her works are part of private collections in Mexico, the USA, Peru, the United Kingdom, and Colombia.
After 10 years of being an anonymous half of the now ended BMD Duo, 'Dside' is the responding solo move forward. Dside wields the public impact he has built from over a decade of painting New Zealand’s biggest wall’s to push concepts and awareness in support of local and global environment and conservation issues, with a constant focus on the factors of climate change and extinction.
As a child, Antonio Segura Donat (Dulk) helped his father to feed the birds they reared at their home. He loved watching the fledglings and seeing them grow, as well as the fish, dogs, and horses that lived on the property. When he wasn’t out and about, he copied illustrations of exotic animals that he found in his parents’ collection of old enciclopedias. And he took his sketchbook with him everywhere from then on. At the age of eighteen, a close friend persuaded him to tackle the walls of the city and suggested he take the pseudonym of Dulk. He then started a diploma in economics, but dropped out in the first year to study illustration then graphic design at the University of Valencia. Today, Dulk is an all- purpose artist. Between urban art, drawing, painting, sculpture or advertisment, each médium is a challenge that he takes up with pleasure and determination. He participated in a lot of group shows around the world in cities as Vancouber, Miami, New York, Brussels, Paris or Chicago. Always looking at things from the same innocent viewpoint that he is so fond of – That of a child- the artist create a tragi-comic animal themed works in organic colours. His world is a surrealistic landscape full of imaginary details, rising up in factions against humans. Maybe they are wanting to warn us of Earth’s bleak future following an environmental catastrophe.
Mexico
Egg Fiasco (b.1986) studied fine arts at a University in Manila, but in 2006 he got enamored more in the risky frenzy of wall tagging and graffiti. His signature tag is punctuated by fluffy whipped forms and his ubiquitous namesake that is shaped like three sneaky eggs. Few years after he started experimenting with several styles and techniques. His works are a convergence of several influences, not only urban art but also from pop culture, folk arts, comic graphics, toys, and tattoo culture. With his image, he tries to create live worlds that mutate and transform all the time, Retro futuristic images and ambiguous characters, known as neo-graffiti or post-graffiti. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and also a part of different communities that showcases ephemeral art on streets.
EGR aka Erica Balon is a contemporary visual artist based in Toronto, Canada. She began her career in '98 as an illustrator quite regularly for The Globe & Mail newspaper for the Facts & Arguments page, which meant frequent train trips into the city for work as well as for concerts and events, inspired by art and music. EGR's art, from illustrations to large scale murals, have appeared in print, music videos and album covers, and everything in between, including appearing on MuchMusic painting a one hour, live-to-air portrait of Ja Rule, which he really liked. Since painting live at Luminato, Montreal's international Under Pressure festival and even Van's Warped Tour events, the demand has grown for live action painting performance and large-scale aerosol spray-painted murals, custom art and illustrations.
"Devon Ekundayo Duvea Reid, known simply as Ekundayo, is a Los Angeles-based artist and muralist whose work deals with the triumphs as well as the hardships of the human condition. Handled with a painterly sensitivity, his loose yet purposeful approach often leaves the viewer entranced in the subtle details of his work.
Ekundayo’s passion and desire to create started at a young age. Inspired by graffiti, hip-hop, jazz, and animation, he is especially influenced by the undeniably unique style that each possesses. It’s this culmination of interests that Ekundayo has channeled into his pieces, telling stories of his life and those that he meets during his journeys. Over the course of his career Ekundayo has been invited to travel the world and create murals in Mongolia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and of course the United States of America. He has also had the opportunity to have his works featured in the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and the Akron Art Museum, and has been published in High Fructose Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Walls and Frames: Fine Art from the Streets, and Virtuosos of Paint."
Elicser Elliott explores narrative structures, new surfaces, and new sensations, through the lens of more than a decade spent in the global street art community. Elicser Elliott leads the charge in the character-based movement in Toronto. Known for his intuitive ability to capture the essence of a subject, his work intimately frames subjects from children on the street to homages to the late great Michael Jackson and J-Dilla. The work of Elicser is highly visible in major cities across Canada, Central + South America and South Africa. Elicser is one of Toronto's favourite graffiti writers and has been voted by NOW magazine as the "Best Local Graffiti Artist" for 2014, 2013, 2012 + 2011. He is recognized as Canada's leading aerosol artist by Who's Who in Black Canada. He has exhibited in both the ROM and AGO and participated in mural festivals in Honolulu (Pow! Wow! Hawaii) and Rochester, NY (Wall Therapy).
Elle is a Florida native, born and raised in Sarasota. She studied printmaking and painting at Florida State University and received her BFA in studio art in 2016. She has since pursued her artistic career via freelance design, illustration, clothing design, and murals. She currently lives and creates locally in St. Petersburg.
Elle began her current body of work, intending to use it as a release from her otherwise representational freelance career. She loosely restricts herself to using the most basic colors and forms, focusing on primary colors and playful shapes. “I love the idea that such pure elements of design can come together into a composition that has never been executed quite the same way. I think I was looking for an outlet to bring positivity and playfulness to an aspect of my life that can, at times, become all work and no play. It’s important to me for art to remain something I find passion and pleasure in.”
Relating to her mural designs, she strives to create contemporary, effortless imagery that compliments simple, modern spaces. She is inspired by objects throughout daily life that are often overlooked. The mundanity of the everyday objects relieves the necessity of meaning people often seek in art. There is interest to be seen in everything, and she has endlessly sought to give these objects their 'moment in the sun.'
"Born in 1982, Elliot Francis Stewart is the third youngest of nine children and grew up in the Eastern Auckland suburb of Pakuranga. He spent his childhood engrossed in comic books and creating elaborately rendered drawings of galleon’s and scenes of war.
In 1996 his family relocated to the inner city neighbourhood of Grey Lynn and he attended the now defunct Auckland Metropolitan College, an alternative school where he met his tight-knit crew of friends who became known as the RFC (Rat Fink Club) crew.
Initially garnering a reputation for his often offbeat cartoon-based graffiti, Elliot became part of TMD (The Most Dedicated) in 2001 and quickly established himself as the foremost talent in character based work in aerosol. Furthermore his early shows at The Gully Lounge in St.Kevin’s Arcade and Disrupt Gallery, allowed him to showcase elaborate and influential illustrative works often created on found objects in common house paint and ballpoint pen.
Elliot currently lives in Auckland and works as an artist and freelance illustrator."
USA
Emily Devers is an accomplished multidisciplinary fine artist who develops unique and timeless concepts through her public work, with a dual focus on community engagement and conversation. Emily holds a BFA from Queensland University of Technology, and has participated in many exhibitions, facilitated community workshops, contributed to industry conversations and painted across the globe. Living sustainably through her creative practices, she creates high impact art with low impact materials – generating space in her artworks for pertinent discussions around the future of our planet.
Emily Ding is a muralist who draws inspiration from flora and fauna, human temperament, and the interactions between people and nature. Her large-scale work is characterized by expressive, brooding animals and figures, which come to life with her bold color choices and fluid, painterly style.
Resonating deeply with the phenomena of the natural world, she aims to capture emotions and experiences such as loss, infatuation, envy, and celebration by translating our humanity into impassioned portraits of wild creatures.
Erika Pearce is a multi-disciplined artist, illustrator and designer from Auckland, New Zealand. As a lover of the sun and the sea, her passion for nature, culture and travel inspires her vibrant artwork.
Erika is confident with a range of styles and mediums. From traditional paintings with acrylics and oils, to large scale murals and digital design. This enables her to tailor projects with the appropriate methods for each clients individual needs.
Her artwork can be found across New Zealand as well as in Australia, Thailand, Fiji, Indonesia and in the private homes of collectors around the world.
Ernesto Maranje is a Miami based painter, illustrator and muralist. Maranje uses his vivid imagination to portray the unity of animals and plants by pulling different segments from each and somehow making it a cohesive whole. Not only is the result pleasing to the eye, it reminds the viewer of our connection with nature. Ernesto's purposeful art is a reminder of the relationship all living creatures share with each other. His message is especially significant today when so much conscious protection is needed for our survival. Colorful, whimsical and hinting at so many possibilities and interpretations, Ernesto's art is one of a kind.
Evan “ESK” Wilson is a fine artist, calligrapher, muralist, and tattooer based in Northern California. His work is balanced on the line between graffiti and abstract expressionism, with his own personal style of calligraphy being the bridge that connects the two disparate modes of work. This calligraphic style is made up of English letters, but are abstracted through calligraphic mark making strokes. These letter forms draw from and celebrate ancient calligraphic traditions, including Old English, Farsi, Japanese, and Khmer, which are filtered through a contemporary graffiti lens. The resulting works are meditative visual networks of calligraphic line, guiding the viewer towards a looser, more visceral interpretation of written communication.
Founded in a meditative approach towards expression, ESK gives his audience a sensation of peace while being presented with an assortment of mediums: sculpture, ink, paint and more. Each sculpture & piece is full of fragmented objects, seeking to re-contextualize the things so frequently discarded.
Faith47 is an internationally-acclaimed visual artist from South Africa who has been applauded for her ability to resonate with people around the world. Through her work, Faith47 attempts to disarm the strategies of global realpolitik, in order to advance the expression of personal truth. In this way, her work is both an internal and spiritual release that speaks to the complexities of the human condition, its deviant histories and existential search.
Channeling the international destinations that have been imprinted on her after two decades of interacting with urban environments as one of the most renowned and prolific muralists, she continues to examine our place in the world.
Using a wide range of media intended for gallery settings, her approach is explorative and substrate appropriate, including found and rescued objects, shrine construction, painting, projection mapping, video installation, printmaking and drawings.
The seeds for Faith47’s works begin with a raw intimacy. Exploring the duality of human relationships, her imagery carries the profound weight of our interconnectedness.
While some people see a dilapidated building as proof that the world is purging itself of the unwanted, Faith47 is reclaiming these forgotten elements with a sensuality of her own and presenting them with a virtuoso’s skill-set.
Felicia is a Native American Indian from Santa Fe, NM. She currently resides in
Oakland, CA and is a resident artist at Faultline Artspace in Oakland, CA.
Gabaldon’s work can be seen in galleries in Santa Fe, NM, Flagstaff, AZ, San
Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, CA. She is currently expressing herself on
larger scales in California and other countries when opportunities arise such as
thru ArtScape Saga in Gothenburg Sweden.
Felicia’s work draws from the imagination both a mythical and mystic part of
human experience in the natural world. Her work being experienced through
cultural, iconic, and folkloric content expresses the wonders of nature realized
through symbols and tradition. Felicia hopes to suggest that the production of
space and human experience influence the formation of individual and
communal systems of belief.
Felipe Ortiz is a Colombian-American artist based in Boston, MA.
"My paintings and murals are a unique fusion of artistic themes, from representational views of urban scenery to my “Explosive Nature” series. My multicultural upbringing and travels between my native Colombia and United States has helped me gain a wider perspective in my artistic interests. From Colombia’s vibrant culture, colors, sounds and dense natural scenery, to the States’ vast landscape and fast-paced urban environments, there are multiple elements I can pick from each location and merge into the pictorial and self-idealistic vision I'd like to represent."
He is the co-creator of Fresco exchange, a team of muralists, designers, makers, organizers and community engagers who promote and connect artists internationally. Their core mission is to share ideas between creative economies and exchange best practices in the arts. Through the cultural experiences Fresco creates, they encourage artistic leaders across nations to make progress overcoming the challenges to creative success in their communities.
"Fintan Magee is an Australian street artist known for his murals throughout Australia and the world. Born in Lismore New South Wales he grew up in Brisbane, gaining a reputation as a graffiti writer before obtaining a fine arts degree and relocating to Sydney.
He has been described as ‘Australia’s Banksy’ by a number of media outlets although Magee has stated in various interviews that he hates this and that such comparisons are the result of ‘lazy journalism’.
His work often deals with environmental issues, in 2015 his solo show at Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne was themed around his own personal experiences in the 2011 Brisbane floods. [4]He often uses personal stories to talk about broader issues like climate change and the migrant crisis.
He received national acclaim for his mural depicting Felix Baumgartner in Brisbane, and has participated in various public art festivals in Australia and abroad. Along with other recognized street artists from around Australia, Magee contributed to Toowoomba’s “First Coat” program."
"An aerosol and stencil artist with a fine art degree, Flox first made her mark on the inner cityscape of Auckland in 2003. Her trademark native birds, ferns and flowers – a celebration of Aotearoa’s environmental taonga – vibrant, confident colour; and scale combined with delicacy; magically transformed grey walls into vibrant depictions of the natural world.
Flox swiftly expanded her practice into prints, publications, murals, graphic design, live painting, projects, workshops for both school and the wider public, collaborations, charity work and both group and solo exhibitions. Her accessible narratives have broadened her appeal and shaped her into one of New Zealand’s most recognised contemporary artists. Numerous TV guest appearances and editorials have added to her popularity and further spurred the demand for her distinctive aesthetic.
Flox’s intricately hand-cut stencils are what sets her apart from the rest, prompting a demand for these as artworks in their own right. With a philosophy deeply ingrained in the value of the hand-made, her processes pay homage to the craft of the cut – what she refers to as her Labour of Love.
Seen everywhere from Berlin, Hong Kong, New York, Taiwan and now India, Flox is certainly spreading her wings."
"Rick Hayward is a qualified sign writer with 15 years experience, and Emily Devers is an accomplished multidisciplinary fine artist.
Together, we collaborate as Frank & Mimi. Operating as independent creatives and long-term collaborators, our creative studio is nestled away in an old factory in Red Hill alongside some of Brisbane's most exciting creatives.
Our hearts are most full when we're creating meaningful large scale public artworks for communities, stimulating much needed dialogue around
pertinent social and environmental issues. We are driven to support local businesses, communities and projects with a focus on people and planet over profit. Although we're full time artists, we have a range of commercial services that include branding, hand painted signage, illustration, gilding and more prominently large scale artworks - working with a handful of trusted artists and sign writers. It's when we provide these services as a package to our clients that we become 'Visual Identifiers'.
Frank & Mimi celebrates the beauty that's reflected in both the nuances and triumphs of the human hand, with a strong focus on developing unique and timeless concepts. We use environmentally responsible paints and products, and are mindful of our creative footprint on our environment."
Born 1979 in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, Freeman currently resides in Napier, New Zealand. He is a full-time artist who is both nationally and internationally recognized for his skill as an oil painter. Freeman began painting and drawing at a very early age and throughout his schooling consistently won prizes in art and speech-making. In 2006, he was awarded first prize in the prestigious ADAM portrait awards. Following this success, he was invited by James Holloway, Director of the Scottish national portrait gallery, to paint portraits in Edinburgh, Scotland. Freeman has also completed artist residencies in Germany and the USA and has work in collections in New Zealand, Finland, Germany, Scotland, The united Arab Emirates, America and England.
Fuzeillear is a British artist who has been living on Australia's Sunshine Coast for the past eight years, creating work imbued with a calm and stillness that she struggles to find in real life. Working with watered washes and brushes, she uses shadowy textures and strong highlights to bring a sense of depth and space, allowing the viewer to take a breath and, for a moment, float away.
George Rose is often mistaken for a boy. She is actually a visual artist with a flair for not taking life too seriously. She spends most of her time up ladders painting murals and sometimes makes it into her studio just to try something a bit more normal. She feels most at home with a paintbrush in hand but also likes the feel of a pen, spray can, drill or Warm tablet. Since graduating, George has thrown caution to thawing and abandoned her formal design training opting to pursue a multidisciplinary art practice. She has spent the last several years pretending to be a gypsy, rarely in one city for longer than a few months painting walls in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Canberra.
"Georgia Hill is an Australian artist, specialising in type based artworks that combine bold, black and white textures and lettering within experimental compositions.
Since studying Visual Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney, Hill's instantly recognisable aesthetic has developed from exhibition based illustrations to striking works for private commissions, client-based projects and murals which are read in terms of connections, time, place and community.
Over the past three years Hill's large scale mural works have come to inform an exploration not just of personal reflection through lettering based artworks, but also how structures, along with our natural environments, are home to and vital in allowing these experiences to exist and develop from one physical context to another. "
The Garden
Garden of Journey symbolizes the path we take to manifest our destiny. My journey in creative arts intertwined with biological sciences the day that I entered Winston-Salem State University as a Biology major and Chemistry minor. If anything, learning the gateways of nature and geometrical patterns was enlightening; my studies really nurtured my sense of wonder and research. Today, I'm empowered to plant seeds of art and science together in hopes to carry conversations of well-being, nature preservation, and humanity.
The Journey
The Journey is the Destination. Past, present, and future. This platform is created with intention to inspire and connect artistry with the real world in hopes to shift perspectives towards truth, justice, and beauty. My work is dedicated to healing.
Gina Kiel is an award-winning illustrator based in Wellington, New Zealand. She creates feminine yet strong images that exude sensuality and explore the human experience through ideas of life, death, spirituality, and pop culture using flowing lines and forms and bold, minimal compositions with a psychedelic palette.
With a childhood full of music, nature, Disney movies, and hours of drawing, Gina became an illustrator after working at a boutique animation company, drawing frame-by-frame at a lightbox, where she discovered her love for drawing body parts.
Gina can be found exhibiting at group shows around the world, creating at her home studio for awesome clients locally and internationally, tattooing, painting murals, and working alongside Inject Design to create some of New Zealand's most iconic design work.
Torres Strait Islands
Glen Mackie a.k.a. Kei Kalak has a bold, distinguishable style, featuring fine threadlike lines. He retells the myths and legendary stories he inherited from older family members.
Kalak says he has been elected as Yam Island’s ‘official’ storyteller and his mission is to keep alive the sacred stories of the four brothers who traveled from the north before memory and settled Zenadh Kes, or what most Australians know as the Central and Eastern Torres Strait Islands.
Gloria Muriel teases at our subtle, curious states of mind by depicting natural phenomena in her urban art, fine art, and installation art. With brush, spray can, and roller, Gloria’s intention is to awaken hearts and open minds to the raw novelty of the present moment. Her murals can be found in Mexicali, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Mexico City, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami. Fine art and installation art is available in galleries, restaurants, and by commission.
Born and raised on Maui, Gregg Kaplan is an artist, designer, and craftsman whose works draw inspiration from the beauty of Hawaii. Using a combination of materials and techniques through painting, installation, and textile design, Gregg’s art seeks to embody the spirit of aloha with a modern aesthetic. Along with various exhibitions in Hawaii, California, New York, Australia, and Japan, Gregg has worked on signature product lines with Vans, Stance, Beams, and Dakine. In addition, he is the artist behind Plate Lunch.
"Griffin is an internationally recognized mural artist based out of Oakland, California, born in Nairobi, Kenya. His work spans a variety of mediums, themes & surfaces. From the early days of the aerosol urban mural scene ( back in the mid- ’90s, while living in Seattle ), through the many cities he's lived in until the present day -- Griffin remains an active innovator in the aerosol mural movement & the live art festival scene at large.
Whether the final artwork is illustrative, abstract, or character-driven, his artistic style embodies a unique dreamscape story somewhere between time, function, the familiar, and the unknown! In his body of work, Griffin often infuses elements from our modern age with his love of nature, along with elements of the Old World. This signature dimensional approach, and creative exploration of imaginative possibilities, help to keep his work transformational, fun & timeless."
Hannah Eddy is an artist based in Reno, NV best known for her colorful, bold, and imaginative psychedelic-pop aesthetic.
Her art encourages positivity and balance in life, and an appreciation for nature, connection, and community. She is influenced by the expressive graphic style and free-thinking approach of the skateboard/snowboard/surf culture that she grew up immersed in.
Through her paintings, illustrations, and murals she aims to help inspire her fellow humans to pick up a board, hop on a bike, feel the wind, laugh at stuff, appreciate the funkiness in nature, or to just give a hoot about each other and our planet.
Hannah combines her love of illustration, design, painting, and murals with a diverse list of clients and collaborators.
"Hannah Stouffer is an American art director and visual artist living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Born and raised in Aspen, CO, Stouffer relocated to CA in 1999.
With over 15 years experience in fine art and commercial illustration, design, writing, publishing, and curatorial production, Stouffer has proven to be a powerhouse in creative visual media. She is identified as both an art director and visual artist, having maintained a strong presence in both fields, commercially and with her own fine art. Having produced and published 3 contemporary art books, Stouffer is a true tastemaker of visual aesthetics. She is currently a contributing writer for VICE's Creators Project, while also maintaining her own inspiration source, Lust-After."
Chen Yingjie, aka Hua Tunan, is a young Chinese artist. He was born in 1991 in Foshan, Guangdong, China. In 2010, he studied at Raffles Design Institute in Singapore. Now, Chen Yingjie works and lives in Shunde (Guangdong, China).
In addition to Chinese ink painting, the artist also devotes himself to canvas oil painting and mural painting. His art is a combination of traditional Chinese ink painting art with Western graffiti art. Different media, materials, and places, all these elements of painting lead Chen Yingjie to dig into the relationship between Oriental traditional ink painting and Western street art. As a result, he creates a unique Chinese graffiti style. Recently, he was named one of ‘25 Contemporary Chinese Artists You Need to Know’ by the American Complex magazine.
Allison Tinati, who paints under the moniker 'Hueman', grew up drawing and painting in Northern California, and received her degree in Design | Media Arts from UCLA in 2008. Whether she is creating delicate visions on canvas, or crushing massive walls with a spray can, she often draws on the human condition to create colorful mash-ups of the abstract and figurative, and the beautiful and grotesque. Hueman's unique freestyle process involves creating tightly refined compositions from a spontaneous beginning of paint splashes, drips, and sprays. Through this method she is interested in creating motion and dimension on flat, two-dimensional surfaces, and her layered works can be seen on public walls and in galleries worldwide.
Ian McCallum is an Australian artist whose practice slips between indoor and outdoor work. He explores the interaction of color, notions of the everyday, how the body interacts with a painting intuitively, the history of the surface and found elements. McCallum’s documentative process of repositioning his daily interactions through layering and a collage-like aesthetic creates a visual anthropology. The studio work utilizes photography, interspersed with fast and intuitive surface experiments that form a diary of the artist's thought processes.
When working in the public realm, his practice is heavily informed by his studio paintings and the interactions of the immediate environment of the artwork. This creates a dialogue between the outdoor and the indoor and the slippage that occurs in the transference of ideas. McCallum discusses the distinction between how things look and how we judge them to be. By painting on a large canvas, a certain form of external experience implies and produces a consciousness of one’s own body within its environment; discussing perception and questioning scale. This approach seeks mindfulness in the ordinary and leads to the understanding of the world.
A prolific muralist, installation artist, and painter, Ian Ross is a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary artist whose love of the natural world deeply influences his practice. Born and raised in Marin County, he draws from his meditative, solitary experiences in Northern California’s forests and beaches to inform his signature approach to abstract imagery. Ross’s background in ceramic sculpture comes through in his painting style. Similarly to the way he works with clay, he paints with gestural marks that respond the medium’s tactile qualities. Whether working on a canvas, a wall, or a sculpture, Ross allows himself to get carried away in an intuitive creative process, channeling the calm he feels while communing with nature through organic shapes.
Jabari Reed-Diop, aka iBOMS, is an emerging artist from St. Petersburg, Florida. At first glance, his work may seem like simple illustrations and graffiti, but each piece has a unique story to tell—some of self-love, destruction, and discovery. His work aims to catch and draw the viewer in to create that “awe” experience while exposing them to his world. The world of a young African American male. He does this by painting and creating lively characters that, at a glance, you may not think there was a story behind it. But like in life, everything wants to appear blissful, but unbeknownst to everyone else, a dark river runs beneath the surface.
"IMAGINE is a Nepali artist who paints mindful mantras in her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. Being the first to mesh Nepali Alphabets with American graffiti, she has shown her work in several exhibitions, commissioned works and public walls around the world from Boston to Kathmandu. Her show “Mindful Mandalas” was recently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Imagine has collaborated with international companies like Reebok, Neiman Marcus and Red Bull. Her work is held in the private collections of Facebook, Google, Capital One and Fidelity Investments.
Imagine is also an educator and social entrepreneur. She established Nepal’s first Children’s Art Museum to provide a creative space where children and youth can develop 21st century skills through project based art experiences.
Imagine received her Master’s degree from Harvard University. During her time at Harvard, Imagine explored effective leaderships in education and the intersections of creativity, learning and technology. Besides painting larger than life murals and paintings, Imagine passionately supports Asian art by working as the Arts Program Manager at Harvard’s Mittal South Asia Institute."
I am a Greek mural artist that started as a graffiti writer in 2007! I studied in Athens School of Fine Arts, but I also studied graphic art and applied arts!
What I am basically known for is my street art in 3D, an art which is called “Double Exposure 3D”. My specialization wanders around the notions of photorealism, and overlaying images. What I actually do is adding two images in both red & cyan and overlapping these two to create a three- dimensional illusionary effect. In order to get a clear view of the two layers, people use our 3-D glasses, digital color-filters or our characteristic glasses-installations that we have sometimes installed in front of my murals. In addition, I have also created various “moving” digital designs.
Inspired by everyday life and nature, I am always on the go, traveling around the globe in order to make the world's murals a little bit more exciting, but that’s my point of view.
Born in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and raised in Durango, Mexico. Ricardo Gonzalez is a graphic designer focused on lettering, typography, calligraphy & art installations. His passion for letterforms comes from his childhood when looking at old letters written in Spencerian by his grandfather in the 1950’s.
In 2008 Ricardo moved to Canada where he studied graphic design at Mohawk College. After his studies, he worked as a screen printer for two years in Ottawa ON, during this time he rediscovered his passion for calligraphy and began to experiment with letterforms.
In the fall of 2012 he moved to Toronto to work as a freelance graphic designer, but after just four months he headed down south to his hometown of Durango, Mexico, to work full-time as an independent designer. Then, in the summer of 2014, he moved to New York City to attend Type@Cooper where he earned a typeface design diploma from Cooper Union.
Ricardo is currently based in Brooklyn.
James Bullough is an American born artist living and working in Berlin, Germany. His paintings, and huge monumentally scaled site-specific murals, are phenomenal combinations of realist painting technique and graphic punctuation. Inspired by gritty urban graffiti as a young artist growing up in Washington, DC, Bullough harnessed its energy in his work, and perfected a realistic oil painting technique from his study of the Old Masters. Combining the momentum of the one and the technical precision of the other, his work is about staging compelling contrasts and juxtapositions. Working in everything from oil, spray paint and ink on canvas, Bullough’s paintings strike a balance between realistic figurations and stylized interruption. Disjointing the realistic elements with graphic areas and fractured or striated planes, Bullough intends to challenge the viewer’s perception.
US Virgin Islands
Jasmine Lindquist is an artist based in the US Virgin Islands specializing in acrylic painting and digital illustration. Her versatility between digital and traditional mediums makes her work accessible to multiple audiences. The vibrant colors and high-contrast themes that can be found throughout her practice are informed by her surroundings in the USVI. From the bright sun and blue skies to the colorful tropical flora and danish architecture, Jasmine draws inspiration from all around her.
"A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Botkin has been involved in the creation of over 200 murals internationally since 2009, while exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.
His body of work includes the co-creation and ongoing direction of EN MASSE project; a multi-artist, collaborative drawing project that explores the creation of highly spontaneous, large-scale, black and white drawings and public installations.
The project's mandate is designed to explore what happens when artists from diverse forms work together, and begin to shape and build new and ever-expanding communities, collective vision, shared creativity, and the forging of powerful alliances through the act of creating something larger than any one of us could accomplish by ourselves."
"Franco Fasoli aka “Jaz” studied and worked in scenography at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and studied painting with Jose Marchi, Nahuel Vecino and Diana Aisemberg. He is recognized as one of the first major graffiti writers to begin painting in the streets of Buenos Aires in the mid 1990’s.
Jaz’s artwork evolved into large-scale figurative muralism, borrowing techniques and mediums from his scenography work and the political graffiti which characterizes the urban landscape of Buenos Aires. He works in blended mediums of latex paint, tar and gasoline, as well as in acrylic, aerosol and paper collage."
Originally from Chicago, IL, I was born and raised in a Colombian household. Growing up, my parents would travel with my sisters and me back and forth to South America. We also moved yearly from apartment to apartment throughout Chicago. This is how my love for beauty & travel evolved and is a big part of who I am.
In the early 2000’s I studied Graphic Design & Illustration while working a full-time corporate job. Eventually, my creative focus took a turn, and I started my journey with makeup to express myself more. In 2010 I studied for a short semester at Makeup First Academy and grew to love the art of applying makeup. Throughout the next couple of years, I tried creating myself from a Freelance Makeup Artist to a Full-time Makeup Artist but failed. At the time I was living in the suburb and decided to move back to Chicago with my little sister for a year full of fun and wild city adventures. There I continued to focus on myself and my happiness.
In 2013 my life took an unexpected turn where I took an incredible work opportunity to move across an ocean to the island of St Thomas. Talk about a dream come true! Although I was eager to learn about my new position in accounts payables, the beauty & culture throughout the Caribbean was more interesting. It led me to take my artistic talents to the local community where I’ve gained so much admiration for my art. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gained more confidence in myself. The love from the community, my partner, family & friends, reminds me to continue my own path to happiness.
It is now 2021! I’ve created this space in hopes I encourage you to find your path to a journey full of beauty & consistent happiness. We all have the potential to keep fighting for what we truly want. Take that “what if” moment and ride it! Follow me through my artistic travels, and let me help you in the ways I know-how. I want to motivate you and encourage you to reach for your goals & continued happiness. Together we can stay in a powerful state of mind and adventure our beautiful world.
Jeff Gress is a Hawaii-based lettering artist whose designs blend current vibrations from local and global communities to produce creative and meaningful communication. He is also the operations director for Pow! Wow! and the man behind Lana Lane Studios, Honolulu's prime co-working, creative space.
JEKS, graffiti/mural artist from Greensboro, NC, has made a name for himself globally with his hyper-realistic, monochromatic portraits as well as massive full-color pieces. The amount of meticulous detail, smooth gradients, emotion and saturation in his pieces set him apart from other artists in the realism field. He has painted hundreds of walls across the US as well as Colombia and Canada, which have become beloved community landmarks. Between painting commissioned and independent eye-popping new murals each month, technical graffiti burners and a relentless hunger to push the envelope, he is on his way to become a well-known and sought-after name in the public art world.
An influential figure in Bay Area public art, Oakland-based artist Jet Martinez (b. 1973) is known for creating vibrant works of art that engage the traditions of Mexican folk art with contemporary aesthetics. Originally from the small beach town of Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, and raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Martinez takes inspiration from his native culture’s rich traditions of pottery, weaving, and embroidery, enlivening the rigid architecture of urban environments with ornate patterns and abstract forms.
I am Jimbo Phillips, an artist from Santa Cruz, California. Born and raised in the art world. My father, Jim Phillips, designed all the artwork for Santa Cruz Skateboards in the 70’s and 80’s and was the creator of the iconic “Screaming Hand” logo.
At an early age I began working for my father doing graphics for the skateboard industry, creating eye-popping artwork for t-shirt designs, decals, magazine ads, and skateboards. In the early 90s I started my own graphic art business continuing to work for skateboard companies as well as other major brands such as Toyota, Nike, Snickers, Volcom and so many more. Along the way I’ve won some awards for graphics as well as displaying in art shows internationally in Europe, South America and Canada. In 2005 my art was featured on Tony Hawk American Wasteland video game for the Xbox and Playstation2 where the game weaves in and out of my comic book format. I currently have signature artist series collaborations with Bell helmets, Electric visuals, Volcom clothing, Puma shoes etc. I also have a game app on Itunes called Skatetrash!
Art has been good to me so In my spare time I've donated artwork to Second Harvest Food Bank with a skateboard graphic where all the proceeds go to help “Grind out Hunger” feeding families in need.
I recently started an online store to offer high quality original art and limited edition clothing and prints directly to fans, collectors and consumers that want to buy products straight from the artist. I try to get all my products from local businesses using only high quality fabrics and materials. People are always asking me where they can find my stuff so I wanted a webshop where I could dream up anything I want without having to answer to a company and the response has been great. The products on my site are not available any where else and I have a lot of new ideas bubbling up that I am excited to show you. A lot of the rock posters and silkscreened prints on there are very limited so when they're gone, they are gone.
If you want art that stands out, is highly recognizable, very collectable and is a great conversation piece, then you’ve come to the right place. I am an artist who strives to push the envelope of what is possible on a skateboard, t-shirt, poster, sticker or any surface and continue to do so in a fluid yet eye catching style. Keep your eyes peeled for Jimbo’s graphic assault!
Joey is a freelance muralist, illustrator, and painter from California. He grew up in Shingle Springs: a tiny town surrounded by golden fields and musty cows. He now resides in the Bay Area, where he received his BFA in Illustration at California College of the Arts with distinction. His whimsical magic-realist paintings are inspired most by nature. Joey has a strong emphasis on traditional media and loves painting large-scale. Joey's Mural works can be found in the Bay Area, CA, and Maui, Hawaii.
"Jose Mertz is a artist based in Miami, FL. His creative area of interest range from traditional drawing and painting to graphic & product design. He focuses on pushing an experimental original style with inspirations coming from ancient civilizations, science fiction, eastern philosophy, dreams, myth, and the supernatural. Embracing multimedia,
his work has also been incorporated in graphic teeshirts, prints, stickers, installations, and several other platforms that mend well with his personal imagery."
"Julia "Julz" Roth is a Boston based artist and arts therapist. She finds meaning in assembling the fragments of the human experience. From large scale murals to mixed media paintings and collage Julz works to transform old narratives into new creations. Her work explore themes such as human behavior, cultural patterns, identity, emotion, and femininity though color, texture and form. She works with a variety of mediums including spray paint, acrylic, newspaper, found objects, pastels and other recyclables.
Julz received her B.A. double majoring in Transpersonal Psychology and Visual Arts, from Burlington College in Burlington, Vermont in 2009 and went on to received her M.A. in Expressive Art Therapy from Lesley University, in 2011. Since then Julz has been using art to activate communities and evoke creative expression. "
"Kai’ili Kaulukukui was born on the Big Island of Hawaii, and inspired by Hawaii’s natural beauty, abundant ocean life, and rich native culture, began drawing at an early age. He was a BFA candidate at the University of Hawaii Windward campus where he studied under Snowden Hodges who has a deep base in classical techniques of oil painting. Simultaneously, he was trained in oil by apprenticing with Dennis Morton. Later, he transferred to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Kai currently works as a painter and muralist in Honolulu, out of Lana Lane Studios in Kaka’ako and more recently has been acting as the Ground Operations Manager for PangeaSeed Foundation's Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans program.
He has been immersed in shark culture, imagery and information that has sparked his imagination. Based on his research, lately Kai’s works illustrate compromised sharks and aquatic environments. His paintings and murals tackle marine life, often sharks with a loose and flowing approach complimented with drips cascading down the work."
KAL BARTESKI is an artist and brush script letterer. She is passionate about wildlife conservation + education. Her work is often described as "meaningful, authentic + poetic". She believes in art's power to connect + heal and has created art for charities around home, nationally and internationally. She cares deeply about intellectual property online. She is a TEDx speaker, a published author + winner of a Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She was featured on Animal Planet/Discovery and recently named as CBC Manitoba's Future 40 leaders under 40, a Future Leaders of Manitoba finalist, and number 36 on Ace Burpee's Top 100 Most Fascinating Manitobans. She has a deep, love for polar bears, ice and winter. She sells her paintings internationally and uses her signature brush script style in beautiful campaigns all over the world.
Based in Oakland, CA, Kelly Ording has exhibited her work both in the U.S. and internationally since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2000, with recent solo exhibitions including An Unseen World, Gilman Contemporary, Sun Valley, ID (2019), Shadows and Light, Local Language, Oakland, CA (2018), and Rotations Around the Sun, Sarah Shepard Gallery, Larkspur, CA (2018). Her public works and murals can be seen in San Francisco Arts Commission Public and Civic Art Collection, the Alameda County Collection, JP Morgan Chase Collection, and the Ellie Mae Collection. She recently returned from traveling in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia with the Bangkit/Arise Project in association with Clarion Alley Mural Project and Indonesia Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. Kelly currently devotes all her time to her artwork and her two children with fellow artist, Jet Martinez.
"Kelly Spencer is a freelance graphic artist based in central Wellington, NZ, with a tendency to travel, and is best known for her meticulously hand crafted lettering.
Kelly’s creative style is characterized by a bold use of colour, curvaceous forms, and clean lines. A multidisciplinary approach allows her to design across a wide variety of media and enjoy the freedom to produce work both in-studio and out In the world, adorning surfaces large and small with her colourful forms. Her work to date spans sign painting, murals/street art, illustration, apparel graphics, festival & gig branding, identity design and more.."
Canada
"Bold, iconic, figurative imagery is what Kevin Ledo, the native Montreal artist, brings forth in his art. Crossing back and forth through artistic boundaries and genres such as fine art, pop art, mural art, street art, and gold leaf art installations, Ledo covers a lot of ground in his quest to render justice to his artistic visions and insights.
Ledo’s realistic renderings are often juxtaposed to hard edge graphic shapes and designs, void of any foreground or background, suspending his figures between worlds, capturing moments of contemplation, intimacy, emotion and wonderment. A large portion of Ledo’s work is centred on merging female beauty with divinity, notably in the body of work “The Guiding Light,” where Ledo creates contemporary icons paintings by mixing high-end fashion advertisements with early Christian iconography.
Ledo expresses influence and inspiration from a multitude of forces including religious imagery, graphic design, psychedelic music, travel, photography, psychology, Buddhist philosophy, metaphysics, and especially intangible concepts such as infinity, consciousness, and perception."
Kirk Kurokawa is a painter, muralist, and artist based in Maui, Hawaii. He received a BFA with distinction in Illustration from the California College of the Arts. Kurokawa’s paintings focus predominantly on the “simple, everyday life moments”. Although he often paints native birds, flowers, and locals of Hawaii, he is best known for his portraiture. He has been in every installment of the Schaefer Portrait Challenge and was awarded the Juror’s Choice Award in 2006 and the People’s Choice Award in 2015. He is also the first and only native Hawaiian to paint the official Portrait of the Governor of the State of Hawaii.
She draws obsessively, adores adornment, makes art accessible, and collaborates often. Kirsten's detailed artworks showcase layered histories, using ornamentation and patterning to reveal alternate narratives that celebrate diversity in all its forms. She believe that artistic expression is a basic human need. Since 2008 she has been running the affordable art subscription Papirmass, and has mailed over 100,000 prints to art lovers around the world.
"Kwest was born and raised in Toronto, Canada starting his art career as a graffiti artist in the early 1990s. For over twenty years he has been active in developing a unique and complex style of lettering that he can call his own, a fluid and tight mechanical typography that appears to be born of the very structures he chose to paint them on. His primary canvas has been freight trains and he has painted well over 5000 individual works of art, relinquishing any hold on them as soon as they are completed, destined to travel the vast web of rails that crisscross North America. It is thru his solitary practice of working rapidly in an outdoor environment that Kwest has fine-tuned his visual language and similarly gained recognition and respect by his peers.
The thirst for creating the next masterpiece and for the action of painting has pushed him to create sanctioned works on the streets as well. The shift to prioritize painting on walls has transformed his style into one of organic and abstract forms sometimes revealing letters and other times camouflaging them to the point of abstraction. He is known for painting the most complex and largest graffiti art in Canada thus setting him apart from all of the others working in the streets.
Kwest is a key pioneer in the fusion of graffiti and sculpture coming to this as a self-taught carpenter, designer and builder. His work is unrivaled as he applies various stone, wood, and metals to create his letters. His approach is innovative and stylistically unparalleled yet his admiration for the origins of graffiti are always evident. Blending his different crafts has allowed him to create a new style of sculpture that is rooted in graffiti as much as it is shaped by his knowledge of building and designing indoor spaces.
Today, his paintings and sculptures demonstrate his ability to create and shape intricate letter formations while breaking conventional rules. His work explores the relationship between animal and nature, letterforms and their disintegration, among other things. Kwest’s work uses a broad range of materials, both traditional and nontraditional. The materiality of the object, in both its elemental composition and modified appearance, and his connection to its origin, is at the heart of Kwest’s work."
Lauren Brevner is a mixed media portrait painter based in Vancouver B.C on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Lauren Brevner grew up in a mixed heritage family rich with culture and inspiration. In 2009, she moved to Osaka, Japan in hopes of reconnecting with her roots. There, Lauren had the honor of apprenticing under renowned artist, Sin Nakayamal. It was through her mentor that she first began her work as an artist. Nakayamal was the inspiration that sparked her journey to self-taught fruition.
The composition of her paintings explores mixed-media through the use of oil, acrylic, and resin. This unique technical style is combined with a collage of Japanese chiyogami, yuzen, and washi paper on wooden panels. Her influence originates from the stylistic elements of traditional Japanese art and culture. She aspires to reinvent the eloquent tradition of using gold and silver leaf in art.
Lauren’s paintings primarily involve the interpretation of female portraiture. She plays with polychromatic layers; the figures within it existing in surreal and isometric spheres. The women embody strength and femininity through somber silence. Their gaze a myriad narrative. Lauren Brevner seeks to create a commentary on the subject of women and their depiction in art throughout the ages. Her portrayal of women serves to empower rather than objectify: a reflection of the vitality of sensuality over sexuality.
"Lauren YS is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work is influenced by multiple stages of focus, both geographically and in practice. With dynamic bouts in academics, literature and writing, teaching, illustration, and animation leading up to their arrival in the urban art sphere, the influences of these phases of their own career add up to a robust style of murals and fine art.
Lauren's work is influenced by dreams, mythology, death, comics, love, sex, psychedelia, animation and their Asian-American heritage."
"Li-Hill is a Canadian visual artist currently based out of Brooklyn, who employs painting, illustration, stenciling, and sculptural elements within his works. With a background in graffiti and mural painting and a degree in Fine Arts, his works range from smaller multiples to enormous murals that explore industrialization, scientific breakthrough, man versus nature and information saturation. He incorporates found objects and unconventional materials to structure complex multi-layered pieces that are as aesthetic as they are thought to provoke.
Li-Hill's work attempts to decipher the complexities of the rapid development in our modern age. Through the western gaze Li-Hill points to the devastating effects of capitalist culture on the individual psyche, his work serves as a template for the ramifications felt on a global scale. The work mirrors the perception of the westerner attempting to comprehend, disentangle and redress. Born out of suppression, it becomes a manifestation portraying the skewed image of the imprint our culture has globally. To create these complex images Li-Hill blurs the lines between the imposed disciplines of the art world such as graffiti, graphic design, painting and drawing to disrupt the concepts of what is considered high and low-brow art. Through the storm of imagery and density, there is also a beauty that surfaces from this fragile balance. Inspired by the precariousness of the work on the street, ephemerality is injected into the core of the work, furthering its unsettling nature."
Yuan uses her photography to create hyperreal paintings, often inspired by Eastern and Western cultures' dichotomy.
Originally from China, Yuan uses her natural proficiency for art to explore the contrasting viewpoints she’s experienced.
She is based in Jacksonville, Florida.
With one of the most unique aesthetics in Contemporary Street Art; Retro Futuristic duo The Low Bros are made up of Berlin-based brothers Christoph and Florin Schmidt. Together, they examine the contradictions associated with identity in a digital age.
The Made Fresh Crew (MFC) is a collective of artisans from Santa Cruz, California who collaborate on projects together. MFC designs draw inspiration from street art, graffiti, calligraphy and the fine arts.MFC can be found vending at festivals all summer long. Recent festivals include How Weird Street Faire, Symbiosis, Northern Nights, Reggae on the River and Cali Roots.Recent festival mural productions include Enchanted Forest, Northern Nights and Envision. MFC’s most recent endeavor is laser cut wood pieces with their top-of-the-line laser machine. The creativity of their collective of artisans is expressed through their handprinted tee shirts, hoodies, and hats.
Oakland based artist, Madeleine Tonzi, is a painter and muralist. Her work is focused on capturing the essence of ephemeral moments, and is a reflection of her investigation into memory and place and the relationships we form with the various environments we experience. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, her aesthetic inescapably echos her time spent in the high desert landscape, and simultaneously gives way to her experiences traveling and living in California. Finding both solace and discomfort in the places that she goes, Madeleine creates vivid abstract representational landscapes, both organic and architectural, utilizing a distinct visual language in order to emote what can not always be put into words as we move through time and space.
"For two decades, Mandy's canvasses have been displayed on countless buildings and theatres, creating public landmarks. Each project is unique to it’s own environment and has a relationship with the community and space it is created for.
As a Canadian contemporary realist painter of urban murals, Mandy's artistic process began as a child during frequent excursions to the prairie city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and her desire to 'beautify' the often neglected areas of the city core. Over the years, her work has generated much attention in turning bleak 'brick and mortar' walls into unforgettable landmarks that recognize historical events or special tributes to community heroes and personalities throughout the city.
Although some of her art is characterized by different styles and techniques using vibrant colours, contrasting shapes, and bold compositions for outdoor murals, theatrical backdrops, zoo enclosures, commercial establishments or 'Man Caves,' she also has the ability to soften the design more appropriate for a child's nursery, a themed children's room or a distinctive and soothing wall mural in a private home.
In addition to large scale murals, Mandy also creates original art on canvas. Her work appears in the private collections of many home and business owners.
Mandy has a highly developed sense of colour and composition, and a keen attention to detail. She illuminates qualities that often go unnoticed by the casual observer."
Youri Cansell aka Mantra is a consummate artist and naturalist. While equally adept at painting humans as animals, Mantra is especially fascinated by entomology, the world of insects. Mining memories of his childhood garden in France, he now paints exquisite murals, often of moths and butterflies, on urban surfaces where these ephemeral beings are seldom seen in the wild.
With acute sensitivity to his surroundings, Mantra works to create organic relationships between his subjects and their environments. His renderings of infinitely varied species are always spectacularly beautiful and scientifically accurate to the last detail. Poignantly he usually depicts these creatures as lifeless specimens displayed in an exhibit case, a heartbreaking comment on lost biodiversity.
Marissa Quinn is a full-time artist in Encinitas, California where she grew up in connection with the sea and marine cycles.
Quinn obtained both her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art (BFA) and her Master's Degree in Fine Art (MFA) from Azusa Pacific University, where she concentrated her studies on researching, painting, and drawing extinct and/or endangered flora and fauna.
Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez is an international street artist who works at the intersection of contemporary art, graffiti, vinyl toys, fashion and design. With paintings, murals, drawings, mix-media pieces and private commissions for major brands, his robust palette blends elements of street and pop culture with Mexican and indigenous aesthetics—a signature look the artist has coined “Neo Indigenous.” Marka27’s work has become part of graffiti and street art history, but he has flourished as a product designer, gallery artist, toy designer and more. Marka27 has emerged as one of the most sought after muralists in the world, mastering his craft since before “street art” was even a term. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he and his wife and creative partner, Liza, run their award-winning creative agency, “Street Theory Gallery”.
Artist Statement:
I'm known as an artist with a rich history in graffiti, street culture, design and activism through art. I believe that design is a creative expression wholly powerful, impactful, and progressive if guided by genuine purpose. The "purpose" is what's most important and that's to engage with an audience in order to achieve a dialogue. With today's climate it's important to control our narratives as BIPOC by empowering each other through our respective creative process. My approach for design -- whether product or graphic driven-- is similar to my process creating art. Both start with passion, discovery, and building a narrative. My passion comes from the streets, not merely studying it but living it as well. It's a way of life. Creating street murals, paintings, and product reflects my purpose for engaging an audience in a dialogue on cultural authenticity and awareness driven by self-expression.
Marti Lund is an artist based in Cape Town, South Africa. His work takes form in many media. Trained as a realistic oil painter, he also works currently in collage, murals, graffiti and surfboard art. He feels that the only way to correctly communicate the powerful combinations of cultural, social and environmental narratives that he wants his work to hold is to start with collage. Collage allows for the rapid resolve of visuals, to create elaborate stories and to find humor in the strange juxtaposition of imagery. From collage, he translates the work onto canvases and walls, using a realistic style; be it in spraypaint on a wall, acrylic on surfboard or oil on canvas. Many of the visuals relate directly to his homeland, South Africa, and are deeply personal, inspired by the awe of ethereal natural beauty, a will to celebrate diversity and a mind full of social critique. He strives to translate these ideas into accessible ideas for public discussion through murals. This comes from a strong belief in the democratization of art, art for everybody. It is his will to continue to paint and exhibit globally; to travel, surf, learn, collaborate and truly affect and inform people through his work.
Martin Ferreyra is a self-taught artists from Cordoba, Argentina. He studied psychology at the National University of Cordoba. Adriana Cervi, Ramiro Vazques, and others were his mentors. In recent years, his work has included painting, ceramics and video, creating the ceramic Totem Bowls, and collaborating with other artists, such as Sol Pereyra, and brands, such as Absolut, HP, and Nike, among others.
Mary's paintings explore the balance between the environment and industrial activities, inspiring conversations about our complicated relationship with nature. She enjoys designing murals that bring nature into industrial spaces and loves to collaborate with companies pursuing sustainability goals. Her main sources of inspiration are the three magnificent National Parks close to home: Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades National Parks. Mary also teaches painting and drawing at Skagit Valley College where she is a tenured faculty member. She lives and works in Seattle.
Schwacke creates illustrative designs with playful colors and imaginative characters. As a longtime staple in the local creative scene, Schwacke has been active in many galleries, art shows, and streets throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Max Ehrman is a muralist and live painter. At the age of 20, he had an unheralded, electrifying introduction to graffiti art when he wandered aimlessly past a wall in Gainesville, Florida. The wall had just been memorialized by three German artists after the sudden and tragic death of a child. Gripped by the experience, EON75 was born and the world has been indelibly marked by his influence on the street art scene since.
Max’s approach to art is founded in his advanced architectural education, setting a foundation of rigid structure which is then incorporated with the rhythm and harmony of nature in brilliant color schemes.
When he’s not painting, he’s listening to hip hop, supporting San Francisco's rich art culture, and scoring burritos in The Mission.
EON stands for ""Extermination of Normality."" Max was born in 1975.
David “MEGGS” Hooke is one of Australia’s most progressive and committed street and fine artists. MEGGS is recognized for his unique, expressive, and energetic style with references to pop-culture, the natural world, and socio-cultural issues. His technical use of color and movement combines clean, bold, illustrative elements with intuitive, textural, and free flowing design. By constantly searching for the harmony between form, abstraction, order, and chaos, MEGGS pours his all-or-nothing personality into every inch of his work. His life manifesto is that the ‘journey is the reward’ and his work reflects his eternal search for balance.
"Mica Still grew up in a small coastal town in the Pacific Northwest of America, the home of The Goonies, where the art scene was dominated by seaside watercolours.
She found herself immigrating to New Zealand for love in the late 90's after graduating from art school. Since landing on NZ shores she hit the ground running. She has represented herself through out her career, showing in over a 100 exhibitions. She has been an art mentor, curated shows and has caught the eye of many NZ and Australian collectors.
The last five years she has moved her practice to the streets gaining recognition quickly for your bold animals that dominate the urban landscape. Mica has been interviewed for many publication from Netherlands, New York to Japan and features in two documentaries about NZ street artists.
Mica’s work, with its radiant colour and optical punch, howling tigers, wolves and naught bits – is alive with daring, yet refreshingly sensitive. The jolt of her work contrasts with Mica’s trademark gentle demeanour – yet this artist’s vivid, deep-sea calm gives her fearless and provocative work its rich luminescence."
Mila Moldenhawer is a painter and muralist working in the realm of figuration and abstraction. He was born in Berkeley, CA, and currently maintains a studio in Oakland, CA. His work is often defined by bold, highly saturated, and contains figures conjured from acrylic and aerosol paints.
Nardstar* is a South African street artist based in Cape Town. Her unique geometric-esque style has propelled her to the top of Africa’s growing urban art universe while continually flaunting her humble nature and love for traditional graffiti lettering. Expressing herself through bold lines, distinctive color palettes and engaging subject matter which combine figurative and natural elements such as local flora and fauna, her vibrant artworks enrich their surroundings and spark constructive dialogue. Bursting with imagination, Nardstar* dazzles on any occasion; be it inside the studio or on the streets, from walls and canvas, to designing on the computer, and for a range of client briefs. Freshness and persistence has awarded her major accolades, including packaging designs for brands such as Castle Lite beer, sneaker customization for Converse, window displays for Woolworths and large-scale murals for aquariums and residential buildings, to international festivals and artist residencies in France, Brazil, and the USA on more than one occasion, adding her name to walls of fame, and blessing the Nike worldwide headquarters with her talent. Formidable and flexible, she continues to wield her spray can to gain further notoriety, delving into relatable stories and pushing her own creative exploits to new heights.
Lawrence “Naturel” Atoigue (1983) Landover, Maryland. His sharp futuristic work has quickly emerged in today's contemporary art scene. His sharp, triangular illustrations are a futuristic blend of pop and cubism, with a surrealist twist. Considered an influencer himself with a massive social media following, his talents have also attracted the eyes and ears of celebrity clients such as Swizz Beatz, Rihanna, Spike Lee, Paul Rosenberg and LeBron James, among many others. Working directly with Jay-Z on iconic apparel designs, he has also served as a Creative Collaborator for global campaigns ranging from brands like Crooks & Castles to Nike, as well as working with multi-national brands like Pepsi and the NBA.
Ness Lee draws on history and personal narratives to create dreamy and surreal illustrations, paintings, sculptures, and installations. Often featuring her unique characters, Lee’s work offers a humorous and charming look at ideas of identity, culture, love, belonging, and oneness through her linework and novel use of media. Ness Lee’s work has been featured at the AGO First Thursdays, Drake Hotel, and the Tokyo Art Book Fair, as well as galleries in Boston, New York, and Toronto.
NEVERCREW is a Switzerland-based street-art duo, composed of Christian Rebecchi & Pablo Togni. A team since 1996, they have been creating awe-inspiring murals, paintings, sculptures, installations and other more around the world.
Growing up in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago, to be exact, was one of the main factors that have molded Nneka Jones into the artist she is today. Her astounding love for color and special attention to detail, as influenced by her culture, have always been prominent throughout her artistic journey.
In 2020, the 23-year-old artist graduated with a BFA and minor in Marketing from the University of Tampa. Her most recent achievement was a commission from TIME magazine to produce the cover artwork for the August 31st/ September 7th issue 2020. The artist is now speaking at events like Adobe MAX, inspiring others by sharing how she turned her doubts into dreams and made those dreams into reality. She uses her artwork to speak out against social injustices that are overlooked in everyday life.
She quotes, “There is the artwork. The story behind the artwork and the story that the artwork tells.” She believes that her artistic journey has only just begun and is eager to explore her creative purpose in life, to reach her ultimate goal of being an internationally renowned artist.
Noble Richardson’s connection to Hawai’i comes through in his work with his choice of subjects, choice of medium, and execution of those pieces. His art takes place through paintings in galleries, murals throughout the town, and among public school art programs, teaching students the fundamentals of fine art.
Nosego is a Philadelphia-based artist with a passion for illustration and media arts. He mixes fine art with a contemporary style to deliver highly energetic work. His designs feature an assemblage of patterns, vibrant colors and characters derived from his imagination and his surrounding environment.
"The Austrian urban art and graffiti illustrator Nychos has been part of the international art scene for more than 15 years now. He is well known for his huge and technically outstanding art pieces in the urban environment as well as being part of gallery exhibitions.
Raised in a traditional Austrian hunting family, death and dissection were daily business for Nychos. The proximity to animal viscera had a profound effect on him visually. He explores the theme in different styles like dissection, cross-section, and translucency - pushing it to playful extremes.
Recent murals in San Francisco, Miami, and New York make him one of the most sought-after artists. Nychos’ paintings and drawings have been exhibited in galleries worldwide, including several solo exhibitions (e.g. Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York, Julian Kolly Gallery in Zurich, Open Space in Paris, …). The works on canvas serve as unique compliments to his massive public works that give character to cities all over the world.
2016 a cooperation with the Vienna Tourism board, brought him and his 10-foot-tall sculpture of Sigmund Freud to New York’s Flatiron Plaza, showcasing his focus and reinterpretation of dissected motives in a 3D matter. Nychos currently lives and works out of Rabbit Eye Movement, his studio and art space located in Vienna, Austria."
OLEK’s art explores sexuality, feminist ideals and the evolution of communication through colors, conceptual exploration and meticulous detail. OLEK consistently pushes the boundaries between fashion, art, craft and public art, fluidly combining the sculptural and the fanciful. With the old fashion technique of crocheting, she has taken the ephemeral medium of yarn to express everyday occurrences, inspirations and hopes to create a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and psychological processes.
Born in Sherbrooke in 1990, Olivier Bonnard is a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal. Since 2012, he has join artistic initiatives in Mexico, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, and London and work as an artistic director. Bonnard practices painting, sculpture, illustration and animation and is currently working on his first solo show in Toronto at Rally gallery.
Onur’s artistic tool of choice is the paint roller. Using it, he is creating photo-realistic imagery, mostly in black and white. His former profession as a scenery painter displays itself in preference for large-scale works. Many of his creations capture moments of every day life, freezing the instant in time. People seem detached from their surroundings in the situations captured and display the most fundamental feelings of human existence.
Olivia Rose Losee-Unger (ORLUarts) is a Bay Area muralist.
Liv has several years of professional experience creating vibrant and colorful murals of all shapes and sizes. She specializes in murals that celebrate community, honor the environment, and inspire happiness.
PA system are a Canadian duo who collaborate on paintings both on and off the street, as well as on lithographs, screen-prints, doodled Indian buffet napkins and tidal ice walls. They have shown their works in museums, galleries and in public spaces worldwide. PA System's collaborative work is fed by memories of place, feelings, and stories: "We sail the seas guided by ‘mistakism’, ‘errorism’ and art flubbery. We pull from a Rolodex of soundbites, people, stories and a disorderly color sense grown organically while traveling to places with thousand year histories and curious names like Kangiqsujuaq, Luxor, Gatineau, Xingping, PaK-Chong, Igloolik and Boulder. We draw from each other, collaborate with people everywhere and have no plan to stop.
Pat Perry is an artist from Michigan who writes and makes pictures through careful and cautious observation. He often works itinerantly, and lives in Detroit.
"Trained in both, traditional and digital art, and taking from his 20 years painting graffiti, Peru found his calling as a muralist and graphic artist. While still distancing himself from labels and limitations, he continues to explore his imagination through different mediums. Some of Peru’s clients include Facebook, Nike, Converse, Red Bull, Bell, Cirque du Soleil, Maple Leaf Sports and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Finding inspiration through his travels, his recent work explores the theme of home, what it means to him personally, and our grander existential need as humans to find a place to belong. Growing up travelling throughout Peru’s exotic extremes to his father’s dirt-bike races allowed him to let his imagination run wild. For Peru, imagination is not merely a place for fantasy but an expression of our inward connection to one another and to our environment. In representing the fruits of his own imagination, then, Peru’s art seeks to remind us of the instinctual and light-hearted joy we all experience when encountering the world around us."
Phibs is one the most respected and renowned names in Australian Graffiti/Street Art. His public art works are prolific in Melbourne & Sydney and are far-flung across the globe.
Originally from Sydney, Phibs came from a strong graffiti background and was active in community programs, inspiring the artistic potential of this now popular art form. Moving to Melbourne in 2001 saw Phibs exposed to an evolving Melbourne street art scene and the joined the Everfresh Studio collective. In Melbourne Phibs established a name within the fine arts and rapidly became one of the cities most respected and renowned artists, on & off the streets.
Phibs distinctive style signifies the symbiotic, engaging the urban with the organic. He produces works across a vast variety of mediums and consistently reflects his own unique realms of symbolism, multiculturalism and mythology. Largely inspired by nature, his works have spawned a menagerie of signature characters.
Phibs unique works have attracted numerous major brands and publications and several of his works have been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia for its permanent collection.
Now based in Sydney, Phibs continues to exhibit interstate and Internationally in galleries, on walls & at various festivals.
Alfredo Conrique (aka Pogo) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice focuses on surreal painting but extends into the fields of sculpture, design, textile, printmaking, and music. He studied graphic design at Universidad Intercontinental in Mexico City and started working at design firms almost instantly.
His colorful and yet dark imagery draws inspiration mostly from the mystic field, looking to answer his own questions about death, the universe, the recycling of life, spiritual existence, and their earthly counterparts. Stars, bones, flowers, and the power of the feminine body are all central elements of his work.
Regular Rick (aka Rick Beresford) is a Cairns based artist, curator and arts educator working across a variety of mediums and disciplines.
Mexico
Ricky Watts' obsession with art began at an early age. As a child, he loved comics, especially doodling his own. Most often involving glorious battles between the U.S. Army and nuclear dinosaurs. In school, he drew his peers' names in exchange for bartered items. By high school, his entrepreneurial efforts were funding his daily lunches. High school was also when Watts discovered the underground world of graffiti art. Fascinated with spray paint as a medium, he became fully engaged in creating elaborate pieces under the cover of night. After graduation, he traveled up and down the west coast, painting large-scale pieces on every surface he could find.
In 2000, interested in expanding his skill set, Watts enrolled at the Advertising Arts College in San Diego with an emphasis in graphic design. Unsatisfied, he left after two years and returned home to the bay area to pursue more fine art ventures. In 2004, his debut solo show ""Spontaneous Combustion"" opened in Petaluma, California. He flirted with multiple painting styles for a number of years before developing his current abstract style of colors and movement. This came about in 2012, as a deconstruction of the letter shapes he was producing on canvas at the time. It was a lightbulb moment for Ricky and he put everything else on hold to follow the path of this new-formed style.
Today, Ricky’s colorful large-scale murals and intricate paintings on canvas can be found throughout the United States. His commissions list includes work for well-known technology, fashion and automotive companies. Ricky Watts currently works out of his Northern California studio and spends his “free time” raising energetic twin boys.
Ruben Gerardo Ubiera Gonzalez (born October 19, 1975, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a neo-figurative artist, known for his strong use of the line, graffiti-inspired technique/esthetic, urban murals, mixed-media pieces and installations, all created with reclaimed-objects and found artifacts. He paints and draws in a style considered as Postgraffism, but he prefers to call it urban-pop since he has lived most of his life in urban, populated areas and most of his inspiration is derived from the interactivity between man and his urban environment. At the age of 15, his family moved to the Bronx, NY, where he was heavily influenced by the graffiti art that surrounded him, something he wouldn’t realize until much later in his life.
"Rustam QBic was born in 1985 in Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. He studied at the Kazan Art School, worked with illustration, design and graffiti and taught at the Children's School of Design.
His love for graffiti and creating work in public was quickly interrupted by his love for classic painting and it didn't take long until he replaced the letter based works with surrealist story telling pictures and characters. This new style that blends illustrative elements, surrealist imagery and distinctive color palette was first revealed at his debut solo show in 2013 at the Street Kit Gallery in Moscow.
Highly influenced by life, his family, nature and books, Rustam's work carry universal messages of love, knowledge and spirituality while constantly developing his visual language and technique. Actively working both on large scale murals and canvases, he participated in street art events in Russia, Switzerland, USA, Australia, etc, as well as in charity auctions alongside Swoon, Phlegm, Faile, Sandra Chevrier and many others."
Sabrina E. Dorsainvil is an artist, designer and illustrator currently based on the traditional land of the Massachusett Tribe (aka Boston, MA). She works as the Director of Civic Design for the City of Boston Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics. She is fascinated by people; the way they move, speak, touch, interact and experience environments, objects and each other. She's also inspired by the complex nature of our cities and the wide range social dynamics that exist within them. Sabrina loves to draw and think creatively through sticky everyday issues. People, justice and humanity motivate her. Sabrina's work consists of a range of strategy, service and communication design among other things.
"Edgar Flores “Saner” is an artist, muralist, professor, illustrator & graphic designer. Raised by his parents in Mexico City and surrounded by rich color and tradition, Saner developed an interest in drawing and Mexican Muralism early on. “I visited Oaxaca a lot when I was growing up because my mother is from there, and certain traditions which they carried out there, really caught my attention.” He began expressing himself on paper and through graffiti art, later going on to earn a degree in graphic design from the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico.
His lively & humorous images of masked characters on public walls, found objects and other canvases are influenced by Mexican folklore, by color, mysticism, masks, and skulls. A mix of these lifelong interests and passions have led him to become the artist he is today. “The masks that I use are traditional masks from Mexico.” The jaguars, coyotes, skulls, and other recurrent characters appear in my work because that parallel world is the real self, the real face“. In his images, Saner rediscovers Mexican iconography while reinterpreting it, mixing the traditional with the Contemporary. With an unpretentious spirit, Saner expresses a fresh Mexican vision that freely wanders between graffiti art, graphic design, painting and drawing."
Born in Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world. Seher One grew up admiring the graffiti on the walls of the capital's streets, trying to decode them. At the age of sixteen he had his first experiences with graffiti; which led him to discover and interest in urban art through print and other media difusión.Luego his first training on the streets of the Mexican capital, he decides to study the Bachelor of Design and Visual Communication at the National School of Plastic Arts (UNAM), specializing in Illustration. "All my life I've been a fan of color, bizarre forms of surrealism and fantasy worlds. I have a great fascination with anime and that was where I initiated the creation of my work; I began putting up posters handmade through the streets of the city and in doing so I could understand how to work the way line and color. All my work is fraught with very intense tonal range, bounded by black lines. I find inspiration everywhere, mainly in nature and movement of things, the simplicity of the lines and the quality of them. I consider my work rather than plastic, is a dibujístico character, I love working the line and experiment with it, using color and line lumps generate the three-dimensional shapes, mixing these with ideas that pop into my head result in many forms full of life that shed the feeling wear with movement. Seher One is a Mexican pop artist whose work has begun to be recognized internationally, looming as one of the most promising Mexican street artists. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Mexico and his illustrations have appeared on magazine covers as Canvas, Dibujarte, Migala and Nylon Guys; and in the pages of magazines Loop and America Magazine. Today the work of Seher One decorates the walls of various external and private areas.
Born in Warsaw, Sepe has been known to the Polish grafitti and street art scene since 1996. He holds a degree in graphid design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, and lives and works in Warsaw as a freelance graphic designer, painter and illustrator. Raised on traditional graffiti movement, rooted in book illustration and then by the studies interested in graphic and poster design, Sepe is searching for his individual art language mixing those three paths on paper, canvas and walls.
"Born in Paris, in 1972, Julien Malland began painting murals in the 20th arrondissement of Paris under the name of Seth. He made himself known among Parisian graffiti artists by creating characters. As a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris (ENSAD) he published “Kapital, one year of graffiti in Paris“ in collaboration with Gauthier Bischoff in 2000, which became the best selling book about French graffiti. Together, they founded “Wasted Talent”, a publishing house specializing in monographs of urban artists.
Since 2003, he ventured across the world to exchange with street artists from different cultures, in order to broaden his horizon on life and on mural painting. From this experience he has been compelled to draw simple characters, mostly children, somehow connected to the chaotic environment in which they are revealed. Witnessing the outcome of globalization, its creations are celebrating traditions. Thus they are defining a hybrid culture between modern expression and traditional representation. His approach aims to arouse an artistic dialogue, whether it is a collaboration with local urban artists or a learning process of traditional techniques from local craftsmen. In addition, Seth is the presenter, author and director of “Les nouveaux explorateurs“, a TV serial show produced by Canal+, each show focusing on a country and its local mural artists. His travels during the last two years are narrated in a book he authored, “Extramuros“."
Shane Jessup lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 22 years as a graphic designer and illustrator, he has developed a resume that includes companies like Coca Cola, Beats by Dre, Live Nation Entertainment, Nike Europe, EA Sports, San Diego Zoo, Sanrio, Comedy Central and many more. His work in the vinyl toy world with Kidrobot and Thunderdog Studios led to the release of his first mini-series project, “Things That Hurt” in 2008 and numerous Dunnys with Kidrobot, including the coveted San Diego Comic Con Exclusive, 8” Lucky Cat Dunny.
As an artist, Shane works evenly between acrylic, spray paint, and digital media. With his fluid line work and flat application, he addresses his own issues with love, religion, and pop culture, using an obvious sense of humility and humor.
"Shark Toof is best known internationally for his iconic wheat paste image of a hand drawn shark with TOOF in the mouth. Although the shark’s reputation is often fearsome, Toof uses the image instead to give strength, optimism, and possibility to the viewer. The shark icon is a voice of rebellion, a conduit for the unheard, and an homage to graffiti art and its purpose.
His ever evolving cache of work includes Guilty Pleasures, a series of iconographic cigarette packs and slot machines, the pulp-comic inspired Mayday series of idealized romance, and pop culture caricature shark heads featured in his solo show, I'm Shark Toof, Who The Hell Are You? at Innerstate Gallery. Symbiotically, His most recent solo show Red Everything at CASS Contemporary with attention to juxtaposition of shapes, line quality, composition, varying materials, and tension of content, Shark Toof’s most recent fine art paintings become an intimate look onto ourselves, questioning our belief systems, where boundaries are challenged and the viewer is left reflecting."
"Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator, and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his 'Andre the Giant Has a Posse' (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
He became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama 'Hope' poster. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has described him as one of the best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Fairey is known for his 'bold iconic style that is based on styling and idealizing images.'"
Dominican-American Silvia López Chavez is a Boston-based artist. She believes in the power of the creative process as an agent for positive change and uses art as a vehicle for connection.
"I am an interdisciplinary artist, interested in the role that art plays in the human need to connect. My work investigates connection on multiple levels; socially, environmentally and culturally.
My creative process is multilayered which includes experimentation with medium, color, line, repetition, and form. In my studio practice, I combine traditional methods of drawing and painting with experimental techniques in printmaking and collage, finding a balance between representational and abstract. My work has gradually grown into the public realm as part of my social practice.
My work is fueled by my curiosity of understanding the context of the site and its relationship to the way the public engages with that space. Each art piece I create involves a meaningful investigation of the unique social and historical background that makes up a place. The imagery that I select is intended to celebrate, inform and inspire connection with each ecosystem. My approach to mural design incorporates layered graphic elements juxtaposed with a more realistic rendered style. The visual collective is meant to be approachable and understood by diverse audiences.
When executing large-scale work I employ female artists to strengthening the comradery and community among women in the public art realm; empowering women and girls to take up space through visual art."
Skinner is a self-taught artist living in Oakland, California who has meticulously crafted a balance of extraordinary mural work, bizarre and antagonistic installations while maintaining a prolific commercial career. Influenced by 80’s pop culture, human struggle, myths and violence, dungeons and dragons and the heavy metal gods, Skinner’s mind is one of psycho social mayhem fueled by a calculated chaos. His work has been shown all over the world in various museums, universities and galleries. He has been an ambassador of the alternative arts movement in countries ranging from Russia, Cuba, Japan, Europe and all across the United States.
Influenced by Japanese Animé, the graphic style from the 50's and Sci-Fi movies, at the age of 13 he begins to paint graffiti just for fun and as a hobby. Autodidactic and evolutionary, attracted by fine arts, Smithe has constantly reinvented his own style and over the past years has tried out with many themes on his work such as Existentialism, Individuality of the human being and the machine within. The defragmentation, common symbol on his work, is used as a vehicle to show the inside elements that power his characters and is shown as a surrealistic machine. He is commonly known for his graffiti but he´s also involved in other areas such as illustration, design, sculpture and music. He has exhibited in Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Spain, USA and Mexico.
An internationally renowned artist, Sonny has become most well-known for his majestic and intricate large-scale wildlife murals that are scattered across the globe. His unique style of art blends realism with abstract coloring and has quickly seen him gain notoriety within the street art world. His passion for using his creative voice to raise awareness for important societal and environmental issues has also built him a reputation for being an engaged artist, driven by a desire to make an impact.
Born in the United Kingdom, Sonny moved to South Africa with his family when he was just eleven years old; a move that sparked a lifelong fascination with wild animals. It was this passion for wildlife that, in 2017, inspired Sonny to embark on his ‘To The Bone’ project. Using his unique style of street art, Sonny set out to raise funds and awareness for endangered wildlife on a global scale.
As a creative ambassador, Sonny not only campaigns for endangered species, but for a range of sustainability issues that face our world today. By taking these conversations to the streets he’s able to tackle difficult themes through his art. Together with organizations such as UNICEF, WWF, The International Foundation for Animal Welfare (IFAW), and Discovery’s Project CAT, Sonny has been able to use the beauty of his creativity to bring important issues to the fore.
As an increasingly coveted urban contemporary artist, Sonny now splits his time between the streets and the studio. The success of his first solo show led to a growing demand for his artwork, which is now featured in several prestigious galleries around the world, including prominent locations such as London, Paris, Cannes, Miami, and Singapore.
Entirely self-taught, the South African urban artist began painting murals in 2012, largely using acrylic paint combined with a variety of spraying techniques. He then moved on to use spray paint, eventually evolving into a style that incorporated a mixture of both mediums and an array of techniques including brushwork, rollers, and an extensive color palette. As of 2019, Sonny has progressed to using oil paints as his primary medium for his canvases, while opting for acrylic paint for his murals to avoid the negative health and environmental effects of spray paint.
"My work is often an attempt to transform sterile scientific facts into a rich visual landscape that can be easily accessed intellectually and emotionally by a wide range of people. In particular, I am drawn to mural work because of the inherently democratic viewership. To experience a public mural, the viewer does not need money, education, status, or access to spaces of privilege such as galleries or museums. When a mural is painted in a public space, through content, form, and sheer size, it has the enormous power to transform that space into a “place.” It can provide the seed for a more active, vibrant, collaborative, and discursive arena, and even set the intention of the actions that occur in that space through its collaborative creation and subject matter.
My work is focused on the natural world, our place in it, and the conflicts and collaborations we find ourselves in everyday with nature. My bright, carefully researched murals often aim to disrupt deeply embedded beliefs about Aristotle’s hierarchy of nature. I render birds, animals, and plants to evoke a sense of awe and reverence for these beings. Although extinction and loss loom in the man-made Anthropocene era, I hope that my paintings call attention to the magnificent beauty that still exists in nature today."
Steffi Lynn Tsai was born in Austin, Texas and is now currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Steffi’s work is filled with quirkiness, color and character. She is driven to take normal scenes and moments and make them playful, exciting and enticing. Her work is inspired by everyday things, reactions and feelings, and simple imagery from her imagination or nature.