Visual Resistance Murals
Positive reinforcement through the visual underground culture.
by Mitchell Weaver
Contents
Conzo Throb Danelo Dxtr The Weird How&Nosm Lowbros Monorex Nychos Retna Roa Stohead
3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16 17-18 19-20 21-22
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This creative capability almost defied all consumerist mass culture as it enabled the normal person build and create a talent with no restrictions involved. This furthered a refusal to comply, with a rebellious resistance dominating the entire culture creating a problem for mass culture. They had to even adopt it into the mainstream, or face the uncertain fact that this was going to be an on-going problematic effect. Unfortunately for Punk, this was the case as the 70’s proved an entire culture being taken from the underground and forced into the masses. Political agendas did formulate the expression of hate, but ultimately this was still being filtered through a skeletal platform, built by the consumerist organisations. Hardcore prevailed as a dominant philosophy, undermining the very foundations of the government’s structure. Taking back what they were forced to give up of have controlled. Although this only lasted a few years back in the 80’s it has developed worldwide into an underground culture once again. The advent of technological advances has proven to be the most effective method of communication for this.
DIY Hardcore and Punk has undoubtedly became one of the most important subcultural movements throughout modern day history. The principles, ethics and moral platforms allowed the normal person to speak their own voices. Against the odds of consumerism, it has allowed to successfully develop due to communication through an encouraged volume of individuals within the scenes. They stand united.
Note: All images and artwork used are subject to copyright and belong to the artists. Unless stated otherwise.
C
onzo Throb
http://www.conzo.co.uk/
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I am a Scottish based Artist / Illustrator who originally chased ice cream vans in a small mining town with missing green lights outside of Glasgow. Easier to describe me as coming from the (just turned adult) jackass generation, never raised on the four elements associated with graffiti. Instead Tv, videogames and a good upbringing accompanied by the daily intake of ‘Ren and Stimpy’ ‘South Park’ and ‘Johnny Knoxville’ were my Alibi.I have been doodling my whole life, but I have been more focussed in the last seven years now. Dabbling in Graffiti, Illustration and Digital Design, my work and style is usually character based and influenced by the retro / vintage / fat & ugly. If you have a bit of humour and
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D
anleo
Uncontrollably doodling my way through the schooling system I went on to study Animation and Graphic design. I now spend my time perusing all things creative regardless of it being digital, hand painted, 3D or outside for the world to see. I like them all. Most of my work is centred around an organic, fictitious world where the grotesque sits content along side beauty.
I try to produce pieces that are clean, bold and colourful. The aim is to create works that look as if they were created using vector software but have been painted by hand. Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything, however I owe a lot to the cartoons and comic books of the early nineties as these where the things that led me in this direction.
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http://danleodesign.com/
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Based in Dusseldorf, DXTR is a member of the German-Austrian crew The Weird, a talented international street art / graffiti group known for their warped and imaginative characters. Members of The Weird don’t seem to distinguish between large walls and smaller illustrations; their imagination runs wild in any available space. Global Street Art caught up with him to talk about his art and the art of not getting arrested.
Inside Dxtr’s Laboratory My flat always looked like a laboratory, paint kettles and cans everywhere. So some friends called it Dexter‘s Laboratory, thats where the name comes from. I have been drawing since my childhood. In 1999, at the age of 16 I got into illegal graffiti, introduced by some friends of mine – classical stuff. I really liked painting at night, but I also always focused on sketches and character based things since the beginning. Hanging out at my friends house and sketching in blackbooks was my daily routine. http://verynearlyalmost.com/dev/2013/03/dxtr-the-
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D
xtr The Weird
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dxtrs/
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http://www.howandnosm.com/
H
ow&Nosm
How and Nosm (Raoul and Davide Perre) are identical twin brothers known for their large scale graffiti based murals that adorn city walls around the world. The red, black, and white-based imagery is instantly recognizable and commands attention through the impressive size and the intricate detail. Initially the color palette was limited for practicality but instead has become a distinct calling card and formal choice that has allowed these artists to push spray paint to a new level.
Born in Spain, German in heritage, and currently residing in New York, their influence appropriately extends internationally. Whether you visit South America, Europe, Asia, or cities around the U.S. you will be likely to encounter their work. Commissioned and facilitated, they have become sought after artists, an ironic progression, where the outsiders have become insiders and are currently redefining what constitutes graffiti and public art.
The closeness between the brothers is inspiring. They finish one another’s sentences much like they continue their lines on mural walls and work in sync without hesitation. One ends and the other begins, their complicated yet effortless contours twist and turn like a three-dimensional maze. There is a flow present that is part of this process that allows their individuality to merge for a unified statement. Something that seems essential for artists who work on a large scale.
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L
owbros
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The Urban Art team Low Bros consists of two brothers, Qbrk and Nerd, born in Hamburg, northern Germany. They currently live and work in Berlin. When they were children the two brothers loved to draw and invented their own little stories and fantasy worlds while playing in the backyard or being in the countryside. You’ll still find both influences, the urban and natural in their work today. Later they started to paint graffiti and where also co-founders of “The Weird”, which was founded together with Nychos, Cone, Hr. v. Bias, Dxtr, Rookie, Look and Vidam from Peachbeach and Frau Isa. The brothers have always painted together, but it took while before they began to create their characters together and develop their own common, geometric style. Ever since, they have gone by the name Low Bros.
www.facebook.com/lowbros
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M
onorex
Founded in 2004, Monorex is an award winning unique multi-disciplinary design boutique. Based in London, England. Monorex HQ is located in the creative epicenter that is East London and has satellite offices strategically placed in culturally influential cities from NYC to Toronto. This allows Monorex to keep its finger firmly on the pulse of all things artistic and original. Ethos Monorex assembles bespoke creative teams for each project commissioned, with operatives being chosen on merit and skill rather than age or location. Through the day-to-day lifestyles, travels and activities of its core crew, Monorex is an active participant in its key target markets – unlike most other trend, strategy and design labels. We rely on practical first-hand experience rather than theory or guesswork to reach solutions, engaging audiences with innovative ideas and concepts. Our consistent interaction with core youth markets has led to greater insight than can be had from the occasional focus group.
http://monorex.com/
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N
ychos
Rabbit Eye Movement, REM, started as a Streetart concept, based in Vienna, founded by the urban/graffiti artist and illustrator Nychos in 2005 and still has a big impact in the Urban Art World. Nychos: “I always saw the Rabbit Eye Movement as an Homage to all the “Rabbits” out there being active in the Urban art Movement doesn’t matter what kind of Mission they are following.” The Movement grew and REM has now expanded to establish the REM ARTSPACE. A place that addresses national and international artists from different genres like graffiti, urban illustration, street art, lowbrow and pop culture imagery and gives room for individual, but also collective creativity, open minds and passionate inspiration.
http://www.rabbiteyemovement.at/
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R
etna
At first glance, the work of the artist Retna looks like an undiscovered ancient script: a series of hypnotic symbols—complex, beautiful and captivating. But Retna has created an original alphabet, fusing together influences from ancient Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic, Hebrew, Asian calligraphy, and graffiti. Each piece carries meaning, conveying an event or dialogue that the artist experienced.
As a youth of African-American, El Salvadorian and Cherokee descent growing up in Los Angeles, Retna (real name Marquis Lewis) was mesmerized by the gang graffiti that surrounded him. He began practicing the art form, and adopted the name Retna from a Wu-Tang Clan song. In the mid-nineties he began making murals on walls, trains and freeway overpasses throughout the city.
http://moreintelligentlife.co.uk/blog/qa-retna
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R
oa
ROA (born c. 1975) is the pseudonym of a graffiti artist from Ghent, Belgium. He has created works on the streets of cities across Europe and the United States. ROA generally paints wild animals (such as rats) or birds (such as crows) in black and white. His work refers to taxonomy and the classification of species, but in a way that is a meditation on social stratification, urban decay and renewal and the possibility that inner cities are only passing forms of civilization. The skeletons, deserts, anatomical dissection are topoi and reminders of the transience of life. In this respect his work connects to artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Cormac McCarthy and Audubon. In 2010 ROA came to particular notice in the UK when Hackney council threatened to paint over one of his paintings, a 3.5m high rabbit. The rabbit had been legally painted on the wall of a recording studio in Hackney Road, London. A campaign was launched to keep the mural, by the building’s owners and local residents, forcing the council to change its mind. In August 2012 ROA took part in the See No Evil street art festival in Bristol, England, creating a two-storey high fox on the side of a building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROA_(artist)
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http://roaweb.tumblr.com/
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In the work of Stohead shows very clearly his passion - the font. Scripture is the carrier of information, writing it allows to capture thoughts and feelings in a form and preserve writing can be an aesthetic masterpiece, if it is for calligraphy. And here Stohead linked to what it impressed with what moves him. The code of the streets Extracted Lyrics, song lyrics and passages from tags of current social issues are often mathematically broken down and arranged by the artist. This calligraphic arrangements of oversubscribed to abstraction letters escape at first glance readability and let the untrained eye first with the effect of color and form alone in einhämmernder repeat uncompromising lined up as a pattern or sculptural transferred into a three-dimensional viewing plane. In the process of spiritual meditative work sheet is stretched, its stored power is then discharged on the painting surface physically and fierce determination. The large-format images that give the seemingly disorderly a structure, this energy transport particularly haunting and transfer them visually to the viewer whose eyes are entrained in the “Word of storms.â€?
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S
tohead
http://www.stohead.com/
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Forever Selfless