SHEPARD FAIREY

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(1970, South Carolina, US)

Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist and illustrator 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), which appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News.

Fairey's first art museum exhibition, entitled Supply & Demand (as was his earlier book), was held in Boston at the Institute of Contemporary Art during the summer of 2009. The exhibition featured more than 250 works in a wide variety of media: screen prints, stencils, stickers, rubylith illustrations, collages, and works on wood, metal and canvas.

As a complement to the ICA exhibition, Fairey created public art works around Boston. The artist explains his driving motivation: "The real message behind most of my work is 'question everything'."

In July of 2015, Fairey was arrested and detained at Los Angeles International Airport, after passing through customs, on a warrant for allegedly vandalizing 14 buildings in Detroit. He subsequently turned himself in to Detroit Police.

Watch this video of OBEY:


SASU

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(Tokyo)

Sasu's work fuses natural and urban elements with her graphic yet balanced style. Her sensibilities, rich colors and feminine lines create a unique world never seen before.

Sasu believes that her instinctual sense of balance, as seen in her more characteristic paintings symmetrical, mandara-like shapes and figures truly reflect her personality. Mural being the center of the scene, she pursues new areas of artwork. 

The wishes for the endless glow is created into shapes, and the process is crystalized into fine artwork.

Watch this video:

 

SANER

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(Mexico City)

Edgar “Saner” Flores is an urban artist, illustrator and 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. 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 México. His creations are influenced by Mexican custom and folklore, color, mysticism, masks and skulls. A mix of these lifelong interests and passions has led him to become the artist he is today.

Saner’s work has been featured in galleries in Mexico, the United States, London, Berlin and Barcelona. He has collaborated with Kidrobot, Vans, G-Shock, HQTR Canada, Pineda Covalin, Persigna Store, Bacardi, Adidas México, Televisa, and many others.

Watch Saner give a tour of Mexico City and talk about other muralists by MOCA:


SAN

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(Spain)

Born Daniel Munoz Rodriquez, San is an internationally recognized and commissioned illustrator, painter, and street artist. Born in a small Spanish village near the Portuguese border, San currently works and resides in Madrid. His artwork is influenced by magical realism, graffiti, and culinary arts. San has shown his fine art internationally, as well as his street art in cities across Europe.

SAM FLORES

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(1975, New Mexico, US)

Flores grew up immersed in the vastness of the Southwestern desert, spending his time as a youth skating, drawing and honing his graffiti skills (his moniker being Tiger).

He is uniquely noted for being an autodidact, or self taught artist, having no formal institutional training. Sam eventually landed in the Bay Area in the late 90's drawn to it's Bohemian lifestyle and also the promise it held for him to develop his career as a commercial artist. Ever since, Flores has enjoyed an incredible career, developing a passionate fan base while advancing his talent through an ever changing subject matter, often juxtaposed with that of his peer urban contemporary artists, namely because of the presence of themes rarely seen in such genres such as innocence, feminine, natural beauty and melancholy sentiments.

Flores' subject matter includes a myriad of anthropomorphic characters and beautiful goddesses with styles being inspired by Japanese Edo period influenced landscapes, urban contemporary/ graf inspired montages, pop-surrealist environments and his most recent works which are inspired by Mexican pulp comic art and classical portraiture.

Sam currently creative directs his brand Twelve Grain for Upper Playground, the "12" representing his original crew in Albuquerque and the "Grain" representing the role that nature has played in work and life.

Watch this video by VIMBY TV:


SAGE VAUGHN

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(1976, US)

Born in the American heartland to hippy, naturist parents, one of Sage Vaughn's earliest memories is sketching animals at the local zoo alongside his father. In adulthood, as an acclaimed painter, he contrasts the natural world against melancholic backgrounds featuring the post-industrial landscape. "I'm interested in man's wild side, and animals' civilised aspects … where society and the wilderness overlap", he says. A typical example is Sage's pictures of garden birds with discreet tattoos reading for example, "Kill 'em All" or "FTW". He has claimed to paint wearing infra-red night vision goggles, "as this is how most animals see the world."

Incurably romantic while never resorting to schlock, Sage's work also encompasses the intensity, hopes and losses of childhood, plus more recently a sense of humanity and community against the odds. Effortlessly combining a lightness of touch and a sense of drama, it encompasses painting, sculpture and installation work including recreations of childhood dens and gaily-painted baseball bats with six-inch nails driven through them. In January 2013 he first exhibited pieces made from stained glass. The drips that are a consistent part of Sage's paintings are a reference to not only his younger years as a graffiti artist, but also the inexorable marches of time and cycles of nature. His Butterfly Ringcompositions, resembling a mournful wreath of the winged insects associated with optimism in classical mythology, are among his most popular pieces.

In 2011 Sage Vaughn's work Integrity, created alongside photographer Michael Muller, adorned the cover of rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers' single Monarchy of Roses. His most recent triumph is MOCA Gallery's Transmission event, curated by Sage's childhood hero, Beastie Boys founder member Mike Diamond in December 2012. He lives and works in California.

Watch him make a mustard mural by Juxtapoz:


RYAN JACOB SMITH

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(California, US)

Ryan Jacob Smith was raised in Orange County, California, and spent his younger years rock-collecting, skating and cub-scouting. In 2001, he graduated with honors from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

His narrative work explores themes ranging from the earth and its environment to consciousness, the human body, survival and hurt and healing. Incorporating illustration, painting, and collage, his work is a blend of intention and improvisation. Fragments, mistakes and unconscious marks remain in each piece, revealing the process and of their development. With a combination of acrylics, spray paint, silkscreen and graphite, Ryan’s work is as much informed by the street culture of his youth as his formal fine art training.

Ryan Jacob Smith currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he enjoys collecting old science books and ephemera from thrift stores, skateboarding and buying records.

RON ENGLISH

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(1966, Texas, US)

Ron English is an American contemporary artist who explores brand imagery and advertising. He is known for the use of color and comic book collage.

One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books and television. English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters, including MC Supersized, the obese fast-food mascot featured in the hit movie “Supersize Me,” and Abraham Obama, the fusion of America’s 16th and 44th Presidents, an image widely discussed in the media as directly impacting the 2008 election. 

Other characters carousing through English’s art, in paintings, billboards, and sculpture include three-eyed rabbits, udderly delicious cowgirls and grinning skulls, blending stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America’s Premier Pop Iconoclast. English was one of the on-camera subjects interviewed for the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which showcased his McDonald's-themed artwork -- inspired by English's belief about the effect of fast food franchises andrestaurant chains on the American culture.

Watch this interview by Hurley:


ROB MARS

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(1969, US)

Robert Mars uses art to express nostalgia for a time before he was born. An artistic descendent of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, he explores American Pop icons from Marilyn Monroe to Coca-Cola, packaging celebrities opposite brand names and advertising copy as though they were luxury objects. 

To create his work, he uses Xerox transfer to layer images and text pulled from his vast archive of vintage magazines—making photocopies and blowing them up to enhance their imperfections—and adds boldly colored paint and minimalist patterns, then distresses the image to further highlight the sense of a fading era. Mars finishes the works with a coat of resin, or by adding neon lights, imparting a glossy sheen to these memorials to desire.

Watch this video of Rob discussing his process and concept:


ROB ABEYTA JR.

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(1972, US)

Rob Abeyta Jr. is painter, designer and art director living in the harbor area of Los Angeles. Currently, he is working with NIKE as the senior designer on a new line of sneakers & apparel to rollout later this year. In addition, he is a member of SA Studios creative team with Mr. Cartoon and Estevan Oriol. 

His past works have included collaborations with Spike Jonze, French Director and Academy Award Winner Michel Gondry and numerous music packaging designs ranging from the seminal punk band LOS CRUDOS, to The Transplants, to LA hip hop legends MACK 10, Cypress Hill and DJ Quick. 

Other works include the design of numerous skateboards and apparel while working as an Art Director for Fourstar Clothing at the Girl Skateboard Companies. While design and art direction take up his days, the nights are taken up by learning the process of tattooing with Mr. Cartoon.

RICO DENIRO

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Rico Deniro leans on the last men and women of the earth who don’t use computers or technology to make things. People that use no power, and use only primitive tools and the precision of their hands to interpret dirty contrived icons of the world that the so-called “advanced civilizations” worship.

The artisans have little or no relationship with most of the icons and people represented in this body of work. Highlighting the emptiness that is in direct conflict with the billions of dollars spent convincing us that these icons do have value and worth.

The resulting masks show these idols at a level which we rarely see them: exposed. Not in the way that the news media ‘exposes’ celebrities, because in that case there’s a symbiotic dependency, but in the way that these idols are exposed for their lack of substance other than the media and marketing that convinces us of their substance.

Watch this video by Walrus TV:


RICKY POWELL

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(New York, US)

Born and raised in New York City, Ricky Powell is a legendary photographer who specializes in the environmental portrait. He graduated with an AA in Liberal Arts from LaGuardia Community College and a B.S. in Physical Education from Hunter College. Though Powell initially rose to fame because of his relationship with the Beastie Boys, he is well-known for his intimate photographs that have been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, TIME, Newsweek, VIBE, The Source, Rolling Stone, and more. 

Powell’s photographs focus on the organic New Yorker. His photographs simltaneously convey intimacy and detachment, as they provide a unique lense through which the viewer can analyze the mundane. Powell considers the relationship between the photographer and the photograph to be “a chemical connection of some sort”.

The connection between Powell and his camera is only further stimulated by Greenwich Village, where he currently resides. As the intrinsic qualities of the photograph have changed since Powell began capturing his moments, so have the subjects; he is now more likely to “photograph strangers in his Greenwich Village neighborhood than multiplatinum hip-hop acts and Downtown art stars”.

Watch this video:


RICHARD COLMAN

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(1976, Washington, DC, US)

Richard Colman graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts in 2002 and has exhibited extensively throughout the world in both solo and group shows. In 2006 Ginko Press released a book cataloging his work titled I Was Just Leaving. Colman currently lives and works in San Francisco, California. Recent exhibitions include Black Diamond at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen and Mad Love Young Art in Private Collections at the Arken Museum Of Modern Art, Denmark.

Watch this interview:


RICH JACOBS

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(1972, California, US)

Rich Jacobs is an American artist and curator who currently lives and works in Oakland, CA. Jacobs has exhibited in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In 2008 his work Minor Threat Family Tree was featured prominently along with other works by Jacobs at the London Ontario Live Arts Festival in Canada.

Inspired by graffiti, psychedelic and folk art, Jacobs' raw, colorful work frequently appears on a broad range of materials such as magazines, books, CD and LP covers (including most of the albums for Salt Lake City-based group Iceburn), footwear, apparel (such as parkas, skirts and dresses), skateboards, buildings, pillows and so on.

Watch this video of Rich painting on Culture Catch:


REVOLT

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(New York, US)

Dr. Revolt began his practice in 1977 as an original member of the historic New York City graffiti crew, The Rolling Thunder Writers (RTW). Known for doing both tags & elaborate & colorful pieces, he developed his reputation by taking over the Broadway #1 line with his colorful psychedelic & comic art influenced stylings & later, taking it "all-city". With his contributions to the seminal classic hip-hop films "Wild Style & "Style Wars", various music videos & his tour of duty in Baltimore where he, like a "messenger of style" single handedly kick-started a graff-scene that still feels his influence today, his place in the history of graff-dom is secure. 

Today, Dr. Revolt's accomplishments far surpass his early NYC beginnings. In addition to designing several t-shirts, album covers, & logo work for various artists including: THE FUN LOVIN' CRIMINALS, THE BLACK CROWS, CAMP LOW, GRANDMASTER FLASH, SLY-n-ROBIE'S TAXI DJ. LINK, SKARhead, etc. & creating the classic "YO! MTV Raps' logo, his work has been, & continues to be seen in various publications & art galleries globally.

Watch this video of Revolt and Zephyr:


RETNA

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(1979, Los Angeles, US)

RETNA (Marquis Lewis) is a contemporary artist, primarily recognized for graffiti art. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and started his career in the early 1990s. 

He cites eclectic artistic influences, such as illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance imagery, and contemporary text-based art. Religious architecture and décor have long been a focus of his. He has mentioned Degas, Klimt, Basquiat,Haring and the Art Nouveau movement as historical references. Particular to his graffiti writing, Saber and David Choeare cited as influences, among others.

Retna has developed a constructed script which he uses in much of his work. Each block of text is a system of hieroglyphs, calligraphy and illuminated script that has been influenced by Arabic calligraphy, Egyptian hieroglyphs,Hebrew, Blackletter, and Native American typographies. Retna's script communicates personal messages and poetry which are not immediately decipherable to a pedestrian audience.

Watch this video interview by MOCA:


RENE ALMANZA

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(1979, Monterrey, NL, Mexico)

Rene Almanza graduated from the School of Visual Arts of the UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León). He began working during his adolescence as a visual artist; first in graphic novels, underground fanzines, the newspapers of Monterey, and later in printed media mainly designing signs. In 2000 he joined the editorial or political cartoon department of the group Reforma (which included the newspapers El Norte of Monterrey, Reforma of Mexico City, The Mural of Guadalajara, and Palabra of Saltillo), illustrating various articles in these newspapers.

For two years he was in charge of illustrations in the cultural section of the newspaper El Norte, where he received 6 awards for his work from SND (Society for Newspaper Design) based in New York, which every year rewards the most outstanding international work in photography, design and editorial illustration. After three years with the group Reforma, he joined the “Shinseken” Editorial group of Tokyo, Japan, working in a project which collected folk tales from around the world to condense them into a collection of illustrated books, published in five languages. Once the project was completed he moved to Oaxaca.

He is a founding member of Galería Arte Cocodrilo (Crocodile Art Gallery), and the graphic arts studio Pata de Perro ( Dog’s leg), independent spaces dedicated to the diffusion of emergent visual arts in the Oaxaca area. Currently he is working with the publishing house Sirpus (Barcelona, Spain) in collaboration with linguists from the Colegio de México, illustrating a series of bilingual books on the history of the Zapotec communities of Oaxaca. His work can be found in numerous private collections in Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Chile, Canada, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Holland, Morocco, Australia, Japan, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam.

Watch this video:


QUICK & SEEN

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(1958, New York, US) / (1961, New York, US)

Lin Felton aka QUIK is a painter and graffiti artist from New York. He was born in Queens in 1958 and started using graffiti to display his art in subways. He is known for his comical and satirical style that is known to be arrogant. Felton started tagging the walls of Queens at the age of 10, taking the name Star10. His fascination for this world started when he saw the metro trains in movement covered in tags. He then changed his name to QUIK and signs wherever he can.

Richard "Richie" Mirando, known as Seen UA, born 1961 in the Bronx, New York City, is one of the most well known graffiti artists in the world, often referred to as the Godfather of Graffiti, although he did not pioneer the movement.

Seen first started to paint on New York City subway system in 1973. His crew United Artists (or simply UA) quickly gained the reputation for producing full-color throw-ups on whole cars with members such as Pjay, Duster, Sin, and his brother Mad.

Watch this video by Walrus TV: