WENDELL MCSHINE

(Trinidad and Tobago)

Wendell McShine's creates a series of antagonizing situations between the subject and the way in which the imagery seeks to interpret its ideas: animations that conflicts with their sketchbook counterparts. Canvases that are constructed within aspect fine art and then broken down by their illustrative treatment. small installation boxes that seems to be frozen in their melancholic dream state, only to be pulled out of their sadness through the use of intense color placement. Adding to what is a ceremonial dialogue of fantasy and reality as one engages.

Raw, transcendental and overly mystifying it is no surprise that International artist Wendell McShine (aka SHINE) is from the island of “the Carnival” Trinidad and Tobago. Currently based and producing work in Mexico City there’s a lucid cross pollination expressed through stunning iconography.

When one moves full heartedly into the doorway of Wendell’s work, a multi level narrative, which constructs upon itself is discovered. Bandidos, Jewel Stars, King Crows, Nahuales, Humming Birds, mezcal bottles, plantation houses, skulls, towering coconut trees, hibiscus flowers, rubber ‘slippers’, etc., coexist in a world of wooden panels, canvases, organic animations and paper mache masks.

Watch this video of his work:

VITCHE

(1969, Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Vitche grew up scribing the streets in the city in the early 80's. Specialized himself in urban interventions about environmental themes and general conscience.

Today, he develops expositions, scenography, illustrations, objects made in wood, puppets, iron, mud, canvas and photography with a great variety of influences. Taking his art to countries in Europe, US, and Latin America.

Defining his job as politic, lyric and abstract, tries to show the importance of the forgotten feelings that are swallowed by the big cities which are called by him as the great dragon. Sees in what he does a different way of being alive.

Watch this video of Vitche and Mike Giant by Upperplayground:

SHEPARD FAIREY

(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:

MISS VAN

(1973, Toulouse, France)

Miss Van started wall-painting at the age of 20, in 1993, initiating the feminine movement in Street Art. Originating from Toulouse, France and having spent most of her artistic life in Barcelona, Miss Van has travelled the world painting her instantly recognizable women on the streets, as well as on canvas. She has exhibited extensively for decades worldwide in Europe, USA and Asia.

Miss Van’s recent artistic pursuits have taken her to Los Angeles, Miami , Spain and Brazil, which hallmarks a recent return to street art, after several years spent solely painting in the studio, charging her new works with increased depth, emotion and an elevated romantic darkness and delicacy. Her iconic sultry female characters reappear in sensual yet dark animal masks and evolving environments.

In a gauzy romantic compositions, they carry a surreal quality of burlesque, resonating with a beautiful synergy of rawness, softness and emotion.

Watch this interview by Friends We Love:

HERA

(1981, Germany)

Since 2004 the German street art duo Hera and Akut form a fruitful partnership having worked together on various successful global art projects. Their art works can be found in big cities around the world – from Toronto to Kathmandu, from San Francisco to Melbourne. Their joint creative art process is dialogical, among themselves as well as towards the outside by embracing the public. It’s about storytelling, the creation of imaginary worlds and inspiring their figures with individual characters. Hera sets the characters’ form and proportions, whilst Akut paints the photorealistic elements. The further process is determined jointly by the two artists. 

Together they experiment with different formats, materials and methods. Their art works ‘natural home’ is the public space, where everyone can take a pause from the city buzz in front of one of their massive murals. Equally, their gallery pieces, installations and canvases are characterized by their narrative style and their ability to lead the viewer into the imagination of those two exceptional artists. There is a pictorial and textual component in their art pieces. The short quotes, passages or descriptions written next to the figures are references to the character’s life. As a central theme, their figures can be seen in the context of social fractions and collective constraints, but also embedded into fabulous quotes that tell us of love. Thus, the figures reflect the diversity of life.

Herakut’s paintings are sensuous, savage, and always remarkable for their powerful dualism. Akut’s photorealistic details play out against Hera’s expressive, more gestural, line-work in canvases that seem poised to articulate stories of triumph and hardship. Humor and text are weaved their way into the work effortlessly.

Watch this video:

HENRY LEWIS

Henry Lewis is a San Francisco-based painter/tattooer/graphic designer. In his studio is where Henry sits and paints and smokes cigarette after cigarette, ostensibly for hours and hours every single night, after he leaves Everlasting Tattoo.  

Henry'’s been working almost exclusively in oils over the past year, and has become incredibly adept with the medium. There’s something about oil paint that you can’t get with any other paint; it has to do with luminosity. The layers all build on each other and when handled with some skill, the canvas fairly glows. It’s also a very subtle medium and difficult to master.