2B ART & TOYS (Magazine#1) by 2B Art & Toys Gallery

2 B A R T & TOYS JUNE 2021

NICK WALKER

LUCY SPARROW

MAGAZINE

BEN EINE

THE DOTMASTER

#01

EL PEZ

CARRIE REICHARDT

DIS-RUP-TI-VE Yes, that’s what it is, a silent and vibrant inner explosion, the precise moment when something new begins when enough energy and passion is generated to bring it to fruition. At the beginning of this year 2021, it happened. When we were all immersed in the pandemic that has devastated projects and consolidated businesses, one person had the audacity and courage to take a step forward and to do it in the cultural sector, incredible but true. I think you need a great sense of humour and a pinch of madness to undertake something like this, but, three months later, a team of diverse minds and personalities are together promoting an ambitious project dedicated entirely to Urban Art. And it happened that in the circuits that run through our minds a different code entered, the one that drives us every day to go further, to go beyond the frontiers that we set ourselves, even, many times, to allow us to play with them. 2B Art&Toys is a different kind of Urban Art Gallery, a promoter of graphic work, a place where the latest trends such as the NFT have a prominent place, the space of dreams for collectors of the coveted Be@rbricks and also a publishing house from where we present perhaps the first of many issues of this digital magazine. Our physical centre of operations is an innovative space, the walls of our gallery are those of a five-star hotel located right in front of the sea, that blue sea of the Mallorcan coast. We want, through this edition, to give visibility to this artistic movement, still without a name in the art books but which was born in the 60’s with Graffiti, continued with Street Art in the 80’s and evolved entering the museum space after the Tate Modern in 2008 presented the first Street Art exhibition in history. Today we do so by presenting six iconic, world-renowned artists present at 2B Art&Toys. We invite you to spend some time with us and hope you enjoy it.

Montserrat Torras Art Manager

Exhibition: June

CRO THE

Nick W Ben The Dot El P

Exhibition Room

Iberostar Grand Portals Nous · C/ Falc

Opening times: Monday-Wednesday from 10-

www.2b

11-July 31, 2021

OSS LINE

Walker Eine tmaster Pez

Preview: June 10 Opening: June, 11, 12, 13

m · 2B Art&Toys

coner 19 · Portals Nous · 637 482 522

-18h, Thursday 10-20h, Saturday from 14-20h

b.rocks

STREET ART

The background. From 60’s to today

The meaning of Street Art has changed a lot since its beginnings in the 1960s. What began then in New York as Graffiti, an artistic movement that illegally covered the streets with letters protesting against the social and political system, evolved into post-graffiti or Street Art. Among the pioneers were artists such as John Fekner, Futura2000, Blek Le Rat or REVS&COST who took parallel paths and escaped from the restrictive rules of graffiti. From 1998 to 2008, some 200 artists from all over the world explored new ways of integrating themselves into cities in a different way. They are a generation of artists with art studies, unlike most of the members of the pioneer group. This new generation takes them as a reference, but looks for other ways to continue working in the street.

1998 was the year in which the Parisian artist STAK began to distribute his logos, pictograms and text slogans around the city of Paris, the year in which Invader undertook his tile invasion in the same city. The year in which the Faile collective was formed in NY, the same year in which Swoon began to install his collages in the streets, the Brazilian Os Gemeos also became internationally visible and it was also when Banksy left behind freehand work to focus on the use of stencils. All of them distanced themselves from typography and lettering and tried to create a more open and visually accessible movement. When Graffiti evolves, and not only spray letters are no longer used, but other techniques and tools are incorporated, the public’s vision of

MAGAZINE

Graffiti begins to transform and it gradually goes from being exclusive to becoming inclusive. When this happens and this movement is identified as Street Art, with a style, a technique, an ethic and a concrete ideology, the practice is more refined but also less experimental. From 2008 Street Art is incorporated into the art market and accepted by institutions and the media to the point that the Tate Modern presents for the first time an exhibition of this art movement. This was the turning point. An artistic movement, as the critic Rafael Schacter points out, has to fulfil at least two requirements to be identified as such: it has to take place in a specific period of time and also reflect the context of that period of time. Street Art fulfils these requirements, but, from this point onwards, we must ask ourselves about the need to change the name of the movement: if the artists of this movement exhibit in art galleries or museums, if they move their interventions to closed spaces, is it

still Street Art or should we change the name? These questions are still unresolved. The director of the only urban art fair that exists in Spain, Sergio Sancho, defends “New Contemporary Art” as a new term that embraces both Street Art and the “New Digital Art”, and on the other hand Rafael Schacter proposes “Intermural Art” alluding to the new spaces where this type of art takes place. Beyond this discussion, there is another raised by museum directors, art critics, the art market and the media: is Street Art still art when the environment in which it was born and in which it was presented until a few years ago has changed? If I may say so, and questioning the theory of the philosopher George Dickie, I think so. Art is a communication tool that transforms and evolves using all the means at its disposal. To question the value of an artistic movement because of the medium it uses is to deny the history of art itself.

GRAFFITI & STREET ART

Graffiti The true philosophy behind the label goes far beyond a mere signature written in a matter of seconds. It is the artists’ way of expressing a sense of rebellion against society through a nickname. It is what New York City neighbourhood youths in the 1960s implied and transmitted by illegally dressing street walls with letters to demonstrate their rage towards their current social system. Soon wars erupted between graffiti taggers, and then became the rise of the first crews. The crew who could bombard the city with the most tags would make its artists the kings of graffiti. From said competition arose different tag styles: starting from fast signature in black marker, we can find much more complex and elaborate ones, such as bubble style, with colourful and outlined large hollow letters, or, for example, the throw-up style in spray paint.

Street Art Any sort of artistic expression taking place in a public space. The objectives and motivation of those in the movement are as varied as the artists themselves. Ranging from those who follow activistic purposes, aiming to denounce society’s ills (as Banksy, or Shepard Fairy), to others using streets as a powerful platform to reach the public at large (as El Pez), which they would not be able to do solely by exhibiting their work in art galleries. Graffiti, stencil art, sticker art, video-projection, guerrilla art and even ray displays and weighed in installations, all of these are nowadays considered Street Art. One of the most popular urban art styles is the stencil and it may even be deemed as a reinterpretation of the artistic spirit of graffiti. During World War I, American soldiers used this stencilling to mark their weapons’ crates, vehicles, uniforms, and other types of war equipment. At the same time, in Europe, certain social movements used stencils as means of spreading protest ideas and propaganda. It was not until de nineties that the stencil was officially reborn, this time in Paris as another mean for artistic expression: an evolutionary step from classic and conventional American graffiti. Stencils are traced and cut from sturdy materials, thus allowing a motif to be repeatedly painted in series, as many times as desired. Stencils can mix text, logos, and images in multiple layers, providing spectacular textures and results. 9

CONTENTS

Nick Walker

Lucy Sparrow

Ben Eine 26

MAGAZINE

The Dotmaster

El Pez

Carrie Reichardt 44

MAGAZINE

Nick Walker INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first

What inspires you?

artwork or mural? I was self-taught. As a young kid growing up in Bristol, I was always drawing, I was interested in comics, kung-fu, movie posters. In the early 80’s I would watch music videos which were really my first exposure to the graffiti scene. Blondie’s famous video Rapture where she featured Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quinones and Basquiat. Malcolm McLaren as well in the video Buffalo Gals, there was a scene where graffiti artist Dondi was outlining the words Buffalo Gals and watching him creating that with such ease and accuracy, blew my mind instantly. I wanted to do that and have that same can control. I began to imitate certain aspects, I began to follow the scene, I was staying up late listen-

I get inspired by many things and mediums. Music, movies, the wear and tear of my environment. Simple things like paint scrape revealing what’s underneath, anything can spark an idea anytime.

ing to the John Peel and buying magazines like I-D and watching movies such as Wild Style. My first mural was in 1985 in Bristol, it was a pretty big piece at the time for me and it was a memorial to. A friend who had just passed. His name was Martin Rosel.

Have you ever been in Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? I have long history with Spain. I have been going to Spain since I was a child. Mallorca, I visited in May 2013, then I painted a few murals in Palma which were in an old soon to be developed property.

I get inspired by many things and mediums: music, movies, the wear and tear of my environment

I always wanted to paint in New York as a teen, which to me at the time was and still is the Mecca of graffiti. I have done many murals in NYC since, and I guess a place where I could see myself painting that I haven’t done so will be Madagascar Tell us a place where you always wanted to paint a mural I always wanted to paint in New York as a teen, which to me at the time was and still is the Mecca of graffiti. I have done many murals in NYC since, and I guess a place where I could see myself painting that I haven’t done so will be Madagascar. If you wanted your message to reach a specific audience in a powerful and transcendent way, where would you make your work or where would you place it? Times Square.

Which technique do you most identify with? A technique I identify with is Spray Paint, both freehand and Stencil. If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? I have thought about this, if I weren’t an artist, I would have been a Marine Biologist or something that requires me to be under water for extensive legs of time. Do you think that Street Art today has ceased to be something transgressive and has become a formal category of art? Graffiti is always transgressive because it comes from a tough place in society. I still think that the term “graffiti” is a taboo, and a lot of people regard it as a violent act. There are only a few artists that have brought it into the “mainstream”, but it hasn’t lost its edge, I don’t think. There are, especially graffiti writers that are part of the anti- establishment and you would never find those artists in galleries. There’s a fine line still which in a way makes it that much more interesting. The beauty of it is that it can be both and it is always evolving.

MAGAZINE

Nick Walker “I try to add an element of humor or irony to some paintings to add a little light relief to the walls. Painting is a form of escapism for me and if my work allows the spectator to do the same thing, then I’ve achieved more than I set out to do.”

Nick Walker is one of the hottest urban artists of the moment. Born in Bristol in 1969, he is a self-taught artist. As a Young boy, he was interested in comics, kung-fu and movie posters. In the 1980s, Nick came in contact with the world of graffiti through the film “Rapture Blondie” which introduced him to some of the pioneers of the American graffiti scene, like Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

MAGAZINE

This masterful stencil artist is famous for for characters such as “The Vandal”, a pin striped suit bowler hat-wearing person, and the “Moona Lisa”. The Vandal character is born from a personal experience when, walking through the streets of London, Walker saw a man under a golfing umbrella, smoking crack. This happening spawned the question of “what else can a person do behind an umbrella, and so that is how the first Vandal painting where an umbrella was used to cloak the Vandal tag taking place came up. This unique character Vandal represents the very soul of the graffiti artist, and, according to him, it’s his alter ego. The other character, La Moona Lisa, raised and established him to a level of great street artists.

“The appeal of stencils is that they allow me to take an image from anywhere – dissect any part of life – and recreate it on any surface”

Back in the early ’90s, Nick was a part of the infamous and avant-garde Bristol graffiti scene. During that time he has mastered his art using the freedom of spray cans, a freehand work, with the addition of very impressive stenciling, which allowed him to juxtapose almost photographic imagery with the rawness which evolved from conventional graffiti styles. He is interested in capturing the instant, the frozen movement, as in a photograph, but using stencils and sprays instead of a camera “The appeal of stencils is that they allow me to take an image from anywhere – dissect any part of life – and recreate it on any surface”. The results are highly sophisticated and infinitely desirable. The methods he uses retain their forcefulness and integrity on the traditional medium of canvas.

MAGAZINE

His works contain direct and powerful political and social messages. Aside from street art, Nick has worked in the film industry on movies Judge Dredd (1995) and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and was also included in a video by The Black Eyed Peas. Through his identifiable style and brilliantly funny humor, Nick Walker has conquered the art world. His artworks are best described as very sophisticated and endlessly desirable, and it’s no wonder they jazz up any wall. As a forerunner of the British graffiti phenomenon, Nick’s work has become a blueprint for hundreds of emerging artists. His work is constantly evolving and remains innovative, modern and thought-provoking.

Nick Walker’s instantly recognisable style and humour have gained him a worldwide following. In 2008 Nick had sell out shows in LA and London, where collectors queued for over 24 hours to be among the first to get his latest print edition. In 2008, his iconic Mona Lisa sold over ten times its estimated value at auction at Bonhams. Over the years Nick’s work has been accoladed by the media and has attracted headlines worldwide.

MAGAZINE

Lucy Sparrow INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first

Tell us a place where you always wanted to

artwork or mural? I made my first artwork in felt when I was about 6. My Mum bought me a huge bundle of felt to keep me quiet and I made a star. I work with felt because it comes in such a huge palette of colours, that anything is possible. When you are producing a show with 30,000 individual items, you need a lot of choice!

paint a mural I don’t make murals as an artform; but for my 2018 LA installation, Sparrow Mart, I created a felt mural at The Standard Downtown LA which stayed up for the entire run of the show. I totally loved the process and despite being backed onto white felt, it lasted really well.

What inspires you? The artists that inspire me include Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Claes Oldenburg, Matthew Barney, Yayoi Kusama. I was also incredibly inspired by the early work of Tracey Emin, who was the only contemporary artist working in textiles. Have you ever been in Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? I have never been to Mallorca or Spain and would love to visit!!

Which technique do you most identify with? I hand- sew and paint each of my works and they are all hand signed – also in acrylic paint If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? A long-haul trucker or cake decorator - just the decorator – I can’t bake.

I hand- sew and paint each of my works and they are all hand signed – also in acrylic paint

MAGAZINE

Lucy Sparrow Her influences include Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Claes Oldenburg, Matthew Barney, Yayoi Kusama

Lucy Sparrow sewed her first artwork in felt when she was six years. Her mother bought her a huge bundle of felt to keep her quiet and she made a small, yellow star. She works with felt because it comes in such a huge palette of colours, that anything is possible: “When you are producing a show with 30,000 individual items, you need a lot of choice!” Born in Bath, England in 1986, Lucy made her way into the world of contemporary art with her eccentric innovative artworks that are instantly magnetic and appealing. Her fluffy art is bridging the distance between fine art and craft, playfully creating everyday household objects from wool, thread, felt, and acrylic. By mixing soft materials and bright vivid colors, Lucy is exploring human desire and aspiration, often depicting and tackling consumerism, violence, and sex. Basica-

Her fluffy art is bridging the distance between fine art and craft, playfully creating everyday household objects from wool, thread, felt, and acrylic lly, she recreates parallel universes in felt. A gun store, a sex shop, a supermarket or a chemist – she takes the concept and produces the whole store in felt. She is a branding obsessive and so much of the work in her process involves research – getting every label just right and ensuring every shelf, shopping basket, and every sign is exactly where it supposed to be. Her work is immersive, she wants the viewer to be completely subsumed in her reality. It’s theatre – the interaction of customer and shopkeeper is central to the whole process.

The first years of her art career were marked by group exhibitions, recreating famous artworks from felt. Lucy Sparrow first installation, “Cornershop” held 5,000 items and the next one, which opens in America in early 2022 will have over 40,000 items. The scale and ambition of her works just keeps increasing, as does the size of her studio. Her main goal is to have a fully stocked vintage English supermarket in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.

MAGAZINE

Her influences include Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Claes Oldenburg, Matthew Barney, Yayoi Kusama. She has three major shows in production, but her immediate focus is on the Bourdon Street Chemist, a fully felted, fully immersive chemist shop at Lyndsey Ingram gallery in Mayfair, London and her collaboration with 2B Art & Toys Gallery in Mallorca, Spain. In today’s contemporary art scene, Lucy Sparrow is one of the most innovative and truly thrilling artists.

In today’s contemporary art scene, Lucy Sparrow is one of the most innovative and truly thrilling artists

MAGAZINE

Ben Eine INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first

Which technique do you most identify with?

artwork or mural? I started because of Martha Cooper and the book she made, called Subway Art. My first large scale mural was Vandalism on Village underground in East London.

Spray paint

What inspires you? Hand painted, weird typography. Traveling. The way the languages translate slightly wrong. Have you ever been in Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? No I haven’t been to Mallorca. I’ve painted in Ibiza a few times and all over mainland Spain. Tell us a place where you always wanted to paint a mural Somewhere in Mongolia If you wanted your message to reach a specific audience in a powerful and transcendent way, where would you make your work or where would you place it? Something digital or on the Louve. The last place I would want a painting is next to the Mona Lisa.

If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? A drug dealer or a high powered executive in an advertising agency, which is basically the same thing. Do you think that Street Art today has ceased to be something transgressive and has become a formal category of art? I passionately believe that graffiti and it’s commercial child, Street Art is the biggest art movement ever.

A drug dealer or a high powered executive in an advertising agency, which is basically the same thing

Ben Eine Today, Ben Eine is one of the most important and well-known contemporary artists 28

Born in London IN 1970, Ben Eine is one of the world’s most successful typographic artists and is considered a pioneer in the exploration of contemporary typographic art. Originally a graffiti writer, Eine began his career over 30 years ago, leaving his first tag all over London before developing his distinctive typographic style. Eine began painting huge, bright, colourful letters on blinds across East London, creating beautifully executed forms with a relentless ‘graffiti mentality’, painting over sixty blinds in a couple of months. These imposing and attrac-

MAGAZINE

tive letters, painted anonymously but without attribution, stood out from the usual tags and dubs seen on the streets. They caught the public’s attention and were instrumental in the rise in popularity of street art. Eine’s association with the then emerging London graffiti artist Banksy had a huge influence on the commercial success of both artists. In 2003, the two set up the famous Pictures on Walls gallery, together with a collective of other artists, to print and sell street art. POW was created in the spirit of the DIY Punk movement because, as Eine recalls,

“there was no gallery in London or the world that wanted to touch what we were doing”. Eine’s international recognition increased when UK Prime Minister David Cameron gifted his work ‘Twenty First Century City’ to President Obama in 2010. His work is in the permanent collections of the V&A Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Francisco, the Urban Nation Street Art Museum in Berlin, Beyond The Streets in Los Angeles and the Dean Collection, as well as in the private collection of Louis Vuitton and numerous other commercial institutions.

Shop shutters and murals painted by Eine can still be found around the world

Fashion has always been Eine’s love. He enjoys an ongoing collaboration with Louis Vuitton, as well as her own clothing label, Eine London, which launched to great acclaim at London Fashion Week 2018. Shop shutters and murals painted by Eine can still be found around the world. His distinctive lettering continues to spell out words and phrases across walls from London to Los Angeles, Florence to Tokyo. He continues to use street art to engage and surprise the public. In 2018, Eine unveiled the largest piece of street art in the world; the “CREATE” mural, a 17500 square foot artwork painted on industrial flooring in East London that is visible from space. Today, Ben Eine is one of the most important and well-known contemporary artists. His distinctive letters continue to spell words and phrases across walls from London to LA, Florence to Tokyo. This world-acclaimed typography street artist has had many gallery shows and his work is highly sought after by art collectors.

MAGAZINE

The Dotmaster INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first

If you wanted your message to reach a specific

artwork or mural? I Started in the early 90’s in Brighton, doing some small stencils in my local neighbourhood. Stencils, stickers and paste ups were my first steps in getting my work on the street. I tend to do smaller ground based work than murals.

audience in a powerful and transcendent way, where would you make your work or where would you place it? I think most artists’ work talks directly to the viewer based on the space it is in. It’s the communication between the eye, an object and space. Different things work better in different spaces. so the right thing in the right place with the right eye is the most powerful place.

What inspires you? I am inspired by the everyday and trying to fool the eye with paint. Have you ever been to Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? I have been working with the founder of 2B for over 10 years, we’ve done a lot of projects together. One of the most enjoyable ones was the Mallorcan Easter Beach Paint Jam. Set in the stunning little bay of Plaza De Espana, next to Portals Nous, we hosted a paint jam of friends painting a derelict cafe/ice cream parlour where the Grand portals now stands. It was a crazy 48 hours event, where we covered a building set for demolition.

Which technique do you most identify with? Stencil mostly, but I use a lot of different techniques and materials for gallery work. If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? A smuggler.

Tell us a place where you always wanted to paint a mural

Do you think that Street Art today has ceased to be transgressive? The street is the street and the gallery is the gallery. The gallery has always been part of the establishment and the street is a public and un-mediated space. Street art should evolve with cultural situations

I’d like to paint a lighthouse off the coast somewhere.

and public needs, as well as being a playground for all of our egos, it’s our space.

The Dotmaster Over 20 years, The Dotmaster has exhibited around the world, both on the streets and in galleries

The Dotmaster, a.k.a. Leon Seesix, hails from London but started painting on the streets of Brighton in the early ’90s. He takes a sideways look at a populist media, with a typically British sense of humour. His early use of half-tone brought modern print techniques to the street and he specialises in impeccably detailed works, designed to fool the eye. From photo-real colour stencils of trash to black and white rude kids and wallpapered domestic scenes, he creates street-based illusions that play with perceptions and defy conventions. Over 20 years, The Dotmaster has exhibited around the world, both on the streets and in galleries. From Beruit to Tokyo, New Zealand to Miami, his cheeky rude kids have invaded street corners and gallery walls, always caught in the act. His love of repeat patterns has developed into large-scale wallpapers that wrap buildings to form domestic scenes visible from the street. Interiors peeks outside, with framed artworks, fireplaces and

MAGAZINE

Work has been shown at Cabaret Voltaire, Switzerland; ICA, UK; Kunstnernes Hus, Norway; Museum of Modern Art Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal; and The London Underground

furniture depicting cosy indoor scenes as walls disappear and homes become dollhouses. Leon is a driving force behind Glastonbury festival’s weirdest late-night area, The Unfairground, acting as art director, curator, performer and general showman. With an international network fostered through years of artistic curation and as Head of Production for the legendary Nuart festival, Leon has produced a broad range events and installations with a diverse set of artists and organisations. From the Cannes Lions awards, to the iconic head offices of technology companies, from community projects in Lebanon and Calais to Fuji Rock festival, from high-end ski chalets and award-winning hotels, The Dotmaster’s unique and idiosyncratic art always finds a perfect, site-specific home. His art is ever more relevant in current times, combining an irreverent humour and a mischievous sense of mixing things up with an uncanny knack of juxtaposing the unusual with the humdrum - it conveys a tongue-in-cheek playfulness and discombobulation aimed to make us smile. There is NO subculture ONLY subversion. Work has been shown at Cabaret Voltaire, Switzerland; ICA, UK; Kunstnernes Hus, Norway; Museum of Modern Art Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal; and The London Underground. Video visuals supplied for The Buzzcocks, Steve Ignorant, Chuck Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh, Phil Hartnol, Longrange and Second Life.

MAGAZINE

El Pez INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first artwork or mural? I started with some friends who also painted graffiti in Barcelona. My first mural was in a social center where we met as teenagers in Santa Adria de Besos, on the outskirts of Barcelona. What inspires you? The Colors of nature, old comics, cartoons, Pop art and graffiti from the 90’s. Have you ever been in Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? Yes, we were once during summer in Calvia, for a HipHop festival where they invited us to paint.

I never thought about a different option, but I love to cook, so maybe I would have been a chef Which technique do you most identify with? I like Aerosol for the walls and a combination of acrylics and aerosol for canvas.

Tell us a place where you always wanted to paint a mural. I would Love to paint a wall in Punta Cana.

If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? I never thought about a different option, but I love to cook, so maybe I would have been a chef.

If you wanted your message to reach a specific audience in a powerful and transcendent way, where would you make your work or where would you place it? I would like to install a big sculpture near the Barcelona beach, the city where I was born and where I grew up as an artist.

Do you think that Street Art today has ceased to be something transgressive and has become a formal category of art? I think there is still a lot to say and change. But I think that Streetart has earned a very important place in the contemporary art, and in the years to come, it will become even more prominent.

MAGAZINE

El Pez “I consider myself a city decorator”

A trailblazer of Barcelona street art, El Pez is a famous urban artist well-known for his character smiling fish. He was 9 years old when he painted his first graffiti on the walls of his mother’s room, without a very good catch, of course. Jose Sabaté aka El Pez (“The Fish” in Spanish) started painting seriously in 1999 on the outskirts of Barcelona. It was a progressive evolution. At the begining graffiti was a weekend hobby because he was a computer engineer and worked for a bank. In 2002 he lost his job. A friend invited him to exhibit in his skateboard shop but the friend told him that his thing was to paint murals in the street. A friend invited him to exhibit in his skateboard shop recommended him to paint pictures, so he started painting on all kind of surfaces.

“My (smiling fish) character is born from experimentation, comics, skapunk, freedom, LSD, marijuana; a character who smiles because he laughs at antigraffiti laws” José Sabaté started out just tagging, just spraying his signature, but soon evolved into a figure. His friends used to call him the Fish because of his love of the sea and Barcelona, and it was this nickname that prompted him to paint a smiling fish, his alter ego, always colorful and with a heavy load of life and positivism. When he explains it his words are: “My (smiling fish) character is born from experimentation, comics, ska-punk, freedom, LSD, marijuana; a character who smiles because he laughs at anti-graffiti laws”. The fact is that he was looking for a universal language to communication with the audience. Since he was a child, he always liked Akira Toriyama (Arare, Dragon Ball), Matt Groenning (The Simpsons) and Jim Davis (Gardfield), as well as the artist Keith Haring. They influenced him to create his character and to speak the universal “lan-

MAGAZINE

guage of smile”. Ever since, El Pez is passing on positivism and good vibrations to the people on the streets, spreading smiles worldwide. His art is spanning from classic graffiti to experimental pop art. In just a few years his artwork spread throughout Barcelona, and soon he begans to travel and to paint in European cities. El Pez started being recognized and rose to fame quickly thanks to his perseverance in the street and the straight language of the smile. His work has been presented in the most important street art books. Beyond panting buildings and walls all around the world, he started to get calls from festivals and he started to travel all over Spain. Nowadays the art of El Pez can be found in many prominent art galleries. His works appear

in the best-known street art books: Street Logos, Art of Rebellion, Street Art, Bcn New York and in specialized magazines, internet websites and documentary films. The artist had a cameo in the Banksy documentary film “Exit Trough the gift shop,” and he has worked with big brands such as Adidas, Toyota, and Reebok. Jose Sabaté fights for the recognition of the work of street artists who leave their work in the streets for love. He advocates respect from the city towards the graffiti artist and also from the graffiti artist towards the city in order to achieve a peaceful coexistence. Nowadays the happy fish has a lot of friends and a big family of characters that you can recognize by their huge and infectious smile.

MAGAZINE

Carrie Reichardt INTERVIEW

How did you start? Do you remember your first

Always on the street – I think the viewer has

artwork or mural? I have always created stuff – always into making things. I started out in community art and progressed to public art. Nuart Festival introduced me to the street art festival scene.

a different response to art when it is placed outside and public.

What inspires you? I love leaving permanent ceramic installations that try to visually capture the history of a place. I love researching and trawlling through archives to find those hidden stories of everyday heros and bringing them to life. Have you ever been in Mallorca? Have you painted in Spain before? No

Which technique do you most identify with? I specialise in the transfer of image onto clay – I print multiply layers of ceramic print onto tiles. I consider my work to be a form of ceramic tapestry. I think I am quite unique with this technique. If you weren’t an artist, what would you have been? Probably dead or in an mental institute. Really – my art is my therapy that allows me to cope with the world.

If you wanted your message to reach a specific audience in a powerful and transcendent way, where would you make your work or where

Do you think that Street Art today has ceased to be something transgressive and has become a formal category of art? Street art has a price now. It’s been co-opted by the establishment and sold to the highest bidder. Brick Lane is now a place to put up your calling card for more followers on social media. But it will always have the power to be transgressive, it will always be a valuable and important way to communicate. People will always

would you place it?

use it as a way to protest and have a voice.

Tell us a place where you always wanted to paint a mural I make ceramic installations and I love making them anywhere and everywhere that I am invited to.

Carrie Reichardt Her public work is very much based on presenting history where it happens, making site specific work that shows visually the people’s history

MAGAZINE

Carrie Reichardt graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1991 with a first-class degree in Fine Art. Since then, she has spent many years going to adult classes at college. She has skills now in ceramics, printing and mosaics. Carrie has also been collecting both tiles and ceramic transfers for over 20 years: “I have thousands of vintage transfers that would be too expensive to even produce now. My work now draws on all my experience and materials and enables me to make work that no one else could produce. One of the artists that has most influenced her since she finished her studies is Niki de Saint Phalle Carrie Reichardt started doing mosaics in 1998 and helped form a community arts group, which over the years began large scale public

art. Although her work is seen on the street but she didn’t really identify a street artist until Martyn Reed invited her to be a participating artist at Nuart Festival, Stavanger in 2017. Since then, Carrie has been invited to street art festivals in Aberdeen, Oslo, Lisbon, Vienna and Madrid. Her public work is very much based on presenting history where it happens, making site specific work that shows visually the people’s history. Conceptualy, Carrie Reichardt protests by deed visual activism -the Tiki Love Truck (2007), Trojan Horse (2011), a life statue of suffragist Mary Bamber (2011) now on permanent display at the Liverpool Museum – are works that typify and reflect the artists’s core concers: systemic injustice, cruelty, social activism.

Carrie Reichardt started doing mosaics in 1998 and helped form a community arts group, which over the years began large scale public art

MAGAZINE

She also works along with prestigious residencies and high-profile funded research as the Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship (2013) ‘To Advance the Craft of Community Mosaics’ increasingly confirms her, at home and abroad, as a stand out socially engaged art practitioner: one of the top ‘go to’ persons when public bodies are awarding commissions. When they want someone who can engage, perhaps enrage but certainly encourage existing and new publics to reconsider the role of the artist in challenging normative historical and social narratives. Her personal work is more humous and sometimes political and uses iconic imagery and popular culture. She has developed a unique method of making mosaics from printed tiles. I call this process a ‘ceramic tapestry’.

In 2015, the curator and writer Catherine Flood included Reichardt’s Tiki Love Truck in the exhibition “Disobedient Objects” at the V&A. It was a highlight for Carrie Reichardt who also commissioned to create a ceramic installation onto the facade of the museum. This was the first time the V&A had commissioned new mosaics in over 20 years. She is currently working on two very large public art projects. One is to mosaic two 1930’s navigational buoys – which will be placed in the town of Boston, Lincolnshire. Then I will start on a new commission to mosaic the entrance to Pool Meadow Bus Station in Coventry. This will be to celebrate Coventry being the home of Two Tone and Ska music. Both will be installed this summer.