Wynwood Walls 2016 Part 2

Entrance to the courtyards of Wynwood Walls.

There are five interlinking courtyards which begin here.  They were once huge parking lots

and are surrounded by one story buildings with huge areas of wall space and no windows.

There is also a cafe and snack bar.  Wynwood had been a run-down area with high crime

until nine years ago when Goldman Properties, which specializes in revitalizing older

areas arrived.  Tony Goldman believed art could bring a community together and

began the tradition of Wynwood Walls.

Shepard Fairey.  "Chrysanthemums and Preacher."  Los Angeles

Shepard Fairey is one of the leaders in the L.A. graffiti scene.  If you have ever traveled 

on an L.A. freeway or through many districts in town, you know how rich

the tradition is.

Some walls are purely abstract art, using simply line and color, while others

are from the Hyper-Realistic style.
Wynwood Walls has been very successful, and these days there are large numbers of
tourists visiting every day of the year.  Tourist buses go up and down the streets, cars
cruise, tour groups following leaders with raised umbrellas walk around, and
 golf-cart-tours abound.  Many of the tourists are foreign, and you hear more French, 
German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and many other languages than you do English.

Michael Vasquez and Jose Felix Perez.  "The Foundry."  Cuba

Vasquez and Perez work in a hyper-realistic style.  You an almost feel the heat from

the smelting furnace and want to step back to avoid the sparks.

Inti.  "Codo a Codo."  Chile

Inti is one of the most famous Chilean graffiti artists.  He often works with folklore

and myth.  This golden orange color is a keynote of his works; it is used in almost

all of his paintings.

Evoca1.  The Bullfighter."  Dominican Republic.
Evoca1 (Elio Marcado) was born in the Dom. Rep. in 1984; he now lives in Miami.
He first started painting in Wynwood several years ago when the Toro Shoe Co., makers
of exotic sneakers, hied him to decorate their offices and workspace in Wynwood.
The name suggested "bull," and he has done several murals of various sizes for the store.

Chanoir.  "Fairy Shoe Store."  Barcelona
Although born in Spain, he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and lives
there now.  He has worked in many countries and is very famous.  He works only at
night to protect his identity.  His works are characterized by number and density of images.

Chanoir.  Side wall to "Fairy Shoe Store."  Spanish / French.
The major area of murals in one either side of 2nd Avenue NW between 29th Street
and 22nd Street.  But you must walk three blocks to either side of 2nd Avenue also.

"Oculto Tequila Staves" was the type of mural using a skull, a repeated pattern,

and meticulous detail.

RETNA.  "Calligraphy."   Los Angeles

RETNA (Marquis Lewis) is a West Coast artist, part of the very rich graffiti scene

in Los Angeles.  He is fascinated by various styles of writing - hieroglyphics, Arabic,

Old Gothic - and he combines the various forms.

Wes21 and Onur.  "Gloved Hand and Ship."  Switzerland
These two men are two of the most famous graffiti artists from Switzerland.  Wes21
is from Biel, near Basel, and Onur is from Zurich.  They have created large murals all
over the world.  They combine hyper-realism with fantasy, as in this mural.

Dabs and Myla.  "Comic Heroes."  Australia
Dabs and Myra are a husband and wife team from Melbourne, Australia.  They have
created murals in cities all over the world.  They have now moved to Los Angeles,
but they are usually traveling.  They often use figures from comics.

Okuda.  "Face with Turban."  Okuda

Okuda is another graffiti artist from Spain, who has painted many murals in

Europe and North Africa, often brilliantly colored, faceted faces like this one.

His face of "Mother Theresa" is very famous.

How and Nosm.  "A Long Story."  Germany

These are twin brothers from Germany who have a style using black and white

drawing in highly complex scenes.  They have used this wall in the courtyard for

several years with different images, although similar in style.  Fantasy and science fiction.

How and Nosm.  " A Long Story."  left side    Germany

How and Nosm.  "A Long Story."  right side    Germany

Cryptik.  "Persian Carpet Patterns."  Los Angeles

Cryptik is one of the leading Los Angeles artists, with a style often employing

meticulous detail and repeated patterns, like this one.

Findac.  "Butterfly Girl."  Ireland.
Findac is from Cork, Ireland, and has worked all over the world.  He usually paints
female beauty, often a Pan-Asian woman.  On this mural ,there is a very fine net
 hanging several inches in front of the mural, and the butterflies are attached to it.
 They move in the wind, and you can't see the fine mesh of the net,

so they seem alive and active.

Case.  "Dancing Fingers."  Germany

Case is one of the most famous German graffiti artists, and this mural, highlighting

one of the major walls facing the largest courtyard, has been painted for several years

and is particularly beautiful.

El Seed.  "Arabic Calligraphy."  French-Tunisian.

El Seed is a 35 year old man from Paris, of Tunisian background, who learned Arabic

calligraphy at the age of 18.  He found the patterns beautiful and the poetry enchanting.

He has painted commissions all over the world, espousing peace and love.

Shading makes the black lines appear three dimensional.  You can see images

of many of his murals on the internet.  These are verses from a 3rd c. philosopher.

David Walker.  "Woman with Flowing Hair."  London
Walker frequently paints faces with explosive color, using both spray cans and brushes.
Like all graffiti artists, he does not earn a living painting murals - he does it out of love
 and fascination.  He earns a living by painting traditional format oil canvases, although
with his own unique imagery.

Txemy and Mura.  "Lady and Dove."  Barcelona

Txemy Mur is a famous Spanish graffiti artist who creates very complex works

with infinite space and many objects.

Txemy and Mura.  "Face and Checkerboard."  Spanish

"Woman's Head and Graffiti"

"Ghostbeard"

Fin Dac and Kevin Ledo.  "Two Sun Goddesses."  Ireland
The two Irish graffiti artists decided to work together on a mural, using a common
subject but separate approaches.  Fin DAC did the figure on the left, and Ledo did the
one on the right.  I was told that is real gold leaf they applied for halos.

"The London Police" mural - right side

The London Police are two Englishmen who enjoy traveling and painting.  So they

spend their time traveling the world and painting murals, freely or on commission.

They often use these small figures as their major characters.  They currently live 

in Amsterdam when not traveling.

London Police Mural - little men

London Police.  "Little Men."  English in Amsterdam.

CP1  "Peering Eyes"  Chile / Miami
CP1 (Claudio Picasso) grew up in Chile but now resides and works in Miami.

Pixel Pancho.  "The Birdcage."  Italian
Pixel frequently uses robotic figures and vegetation in his murals.

Santiago Rubino.  "Hall of Two Truths."  Argentina
Rubino, like many of these street artists, earns his living by painting oil paintings on
canvas and selling them.  He also produces lithographs and other prints.  These
three sell very well, and he often creates in sets of three.  These images are in the
main central courtyard, where black frames have been built around niches.

"Ship with Hull-Face of Neptune"
Another mural in the central courtyard.  The courtyards are lighted at night for 
tourists, the restaurants are open, they have musicians playing in several of the
courtyards, and they sometimes have yoga classes in the quiet of the evening.
This is one of Miami's major tourist attractions these days.

Decertor.  "Introspection."  Peru

Daniel Cortez-Torres chose his nickname because he "deserted" art school in order to

become a street artist.  He has created many huge murals in Lima and other Peruvian

cities, all emphasizing a Native Peruvian.  He began by creating murals for murdered

gang members in Lima.  The image looks like a woven Inca tunic.

"Art and Sol" Studio featured many mask-like faces.  It would appear to be the work
of a local street artist.  The Wynwood Walls Project has brought great attention and
masses of tourists to the area.  There are now many artists' studios and art galleries 
and restaurants in the area.

"Art and Sol" close-ups of multi-national customers in the shop.

A roll-up garage door was exuberantly painted.

A very large wall with several images.  The number of paintings this year was the
greatest ever.  They say about 150 in total, but I suspect there are many more than
that, by artists not registered with the project but interested.

"Princess and Fairy Palace" had several sections.  Some artists, like this one, prefer
basically black and white, while others like brilliant color.

"Big Bad Wolf" was on the side wall of a school playground.

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Wynwood Walls 2016

Kenny Scharf.  "Comic Creatures."  New York

Each year the Wynwood area / Art and Design Center just north of downtown Miami

sponsors a great international festival of graffiti art / urban murals. In an area filled

with warehouses and factories, there is a lot of wall space.  Fifty international graffiti

artists were invited to participate and assigned wall space, and another hundred "street

artists / urban artists / graffiti artists" applied for and were given wall space.

Eduardo Kobra.  "Yoko and John."  Brazil

All the walls are whitewashed in October each year, and then in November the artists come

and prepare their works for the opening of Art Basel and Art Miami the first week of

December.  The murals remain up for a year.  Above is part of a mural by "Kobra," which

runs for 150 feet and is 16 fee high.  That's a big painting.

Kobra.  "The Sword."  Continuation of 150 foot mural.

Kobra.  Continuation of 150 foot mural.  Brazilian
All of these artists have web pages with photos of many of their other works, if
you are interested.  They are prodigious in their productivity.

Kobra.  Continuation of the  150 foot mural.

Kobra.  "Stop Wars."  Brazil

This is a part of the 150 foot mural by Kobra.  Graffiti artists paint for a variety of

reasons - to entertain and delight, for the sheer fun of it, to send a message.

They are often opposed to war, pollution, destruction of the environment.  But they don' t
make a living painting murals; so they also paint on canvases and sell them or create
prints or sculpture.  They are all very versatile.

Crash.  "Girl and Tags."  New York

Crash is one of the most famous of the graffiti artists.  He is from New York and began

spray painting on walls and subway cars when he was 13.  These paintings are meant to

be seen, free, by anyone.  This is public art / community art, not private art.  The 50 invited 

artists have their expenses paid, but that is all.  This not about making money,

but about making art and making people happy.

Rubem Robierb.  "Butterfly."  Brazil

Robierb is both an internationally famous graffiti artist, but also a "fine arts" artists whose

works are highly sought after.  Like many of the graffiti artists, he has been invited to

countries all over the world, by national governments and municipal governments, and

private corporations, to paint large murals on public spaces.  He is famous for his butterflies.

   Lady Pink.   "Reclining Figure." New York

"Lady Pink" is one of the many female graffiti artists.  She and others work sometimes 

with sprays cans of paintg, but also with brushes and other materials.  These works

are carefully planned long in advance.

Logan Hicks.  "Cityscape."  New York
Logan is from Brooklyn and specializes in urban scenes.  He creates stencils to get
the crisp lines he needs, and then spray paints over them.  Some scenes take five layers
of stencils.  This scene is based on a view of New York which he saw one night
between 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.

Ron English.  "Stag and Green Hulk."  Decatur, Illinois
This one of the most popular murals, and lots of people pose for pictures standing on the rock
This man is trying to take a selfie with the picture.

Alexis Diaz.  "Mastodon."  Puerto Rico.

Alexis Diaz is one of the most popular painters and most well known.  He has five murals

at the Wynwood Walls Exhibit.  A couple of his works, like this one, are so popular,  that

he repaints them each year, and people look forward to seeing them.  Others are new.

The triangle imposed in the center is a motif he frequently uses.  Many of the murals

are also indebted to science fiction for inspiration.

Marka 27.  "Woman Praying."  Mexican-American
Born in Juarez, Mexico, with a BFA from Boston, Victor now works in New York
both as graffiti artist and easel artist.  He is recognized as a leader in the Hispanic / Latino
art world.

Dasic Fernandez.  "Girl with Paint Drops."  Chile

Fernandez is widely known throughout Latin America and often uses multicolor

splashes as in this image.

JVH Design.  "The Wynwood Building."  New Zealand / Miami
JVH (John von Houten) is from New Zealand but is now in Miami and heads his own
design firm working with interior design as well as advertising.  The building was formerly
a mall, but the space is now used for a variety of creative purposes and has become
a symbol for Wynwood Walls.

Maya Hayuk.  "Pastel Cross-Hatching."  Brooklyn.

The mural is very popular and she has repainted it several years.  People love
to pose with this as the background.

Lakwena.  "I Remember Paradise."  London

Lakwena is a Black female artist in London and one of the most famous of the

graffiti artists; she almost always uses words in her works.  They offer both
visual pleasures as well as meanings.

Michael Ortiz / ILLSON.  "Sleeping Figure."  Cuba
Ortiz frequently creates large, horizontal figures 60-80 feet long.  He often signs
his name as a Japanese chop ILLSON.

Caratops.  " Vodka" and "Masques."

Caratops has painted "Masques" before, but with a different image to the left.

I don't know whether this wall was painted by one person or several.  Skulls and palm

trees are both popular images for street art in Florida.

Bryan Deese.  "Thanks, Mr. Mixx."  Miami

This was a tribute to a Miami music legend.

Zed 1.  "Charge My Heart."  Italian

Zed / Marco is a very popular Italian graffiti artist.  He had six murals in various

locations around Wynwood and Miami.  They combine fantasy and whimsy.

This is a wall 50 feet by 8 feet high.

Alexis Diaz of Puerto Rico and Faith 47 from South Africa.  "Nude with Serpent."

Graffiti artists will often work together on a project and share ideas and combine

techniques and specialties.  This is a huge figure.

Elizabetta Fantone.  "Basquiat and Warhol."  Canadian - Italian.

Elizabetta was born in Canada but raised in Italy.  Her murals are often polemical

and make comments about art. 

Elizabetta Fontane.  "Andy Warhol."  Canadian / Italian

Andy Warhol is here dressed in prison-orange uniform for committing

"crimes against art."

Haas and Hahn.  "Striped Deli."  Netherlands

Haas and Hahn are two of the most famous graffiti artists from Holland.  They have created

large murals all over the world.

Davel, Claudia LaBianca, Others.  "The Wynwood Coloring Book."  Miami
They have actually created a coloring book for adults based on the mural art of
Wynwood; it is available in several gift shops in Wynwood.

Interesni Kaski.  "Exotic DFlowers."  Ukrainian

"Interesi Kaski" actually means "fairy tales" and is made up of two men from Kiev in

Ukraine.  They are known throughout the world for their fanciful and playful murals.

For Wynwood they painted an entire building, all four sides, in a verdant green color, and

then added exotic flowers and small people inhabiting the flowers.

Interesni Kaski.  Close-up.  Ukrainian

Tatiana Suarez.  "Eve with Lizard."   New York

Tatiana Suarez is one of the most famous graffiti artists from New York.  She seems

to use several different names and often female themes.

Zosen and Mina Hamada.  "Tropical."  Japan
This is a husband and wife team that create murals around the world.

Mac Stewart.  "Three Masks."  Atlanta, Georgia

Mac is a 21 year old self-taught artist, the youngest of the Wynwood artists.

In the foreground is a Sea Serpent undulating through the lawn by Alexis Diaz.

In the back right is "Stag and Green Hulk" by Ron English, and in the center and left

at back is a 100 foot long mural by "The English Police," who live in Amsterdam.

This little house just off 29th Street is decorated with /crawling with giant insects.

Jennifer Becker.  "The Brick Bar"  Jacksonville, FL.
This is a mural painted about six feet behind a fence but visible from the sidewalk
 along 2nd Avenue N.W. which is the center of the mural district.  The car and man
 are painted.  The actual bar, with beer garden, is right behind the wall.
On her webpage, Jennifer explain how she applied for wall space and won it.  The
bar agreed to pay for her materials, and she went on-line GOFUNDME to ask
for donations to help pay her expenses.  She spent 127 hours over 2 weeks
completing the mural.

"Blue Bird and Pink Wall" were just two parts of many murals painted around a small
courtyard between several small houses.

"The Blue Bird and Graffiti."

"My Grandparents" stood alone on a wall beside an auto repair shop.

Zer 1.  "Zed 1's Theater."  Italian
This is a second of the popular Zed 1's / Marco murals.  It is pure fantasy, a huge goose
riding a sort of vehicle.  But the details, hyper-realism are amazing.

Jenna Morello.  "Blue Roses."  Brooklyn
Jenna has created similar roses in red and pink and orange and other colors
in other cities.  She has her studio in New York.

Cleon Peterson and Shepard Fairey.  "Running Man."  Los Angeles

These two men are two of the leading graffiti artists from the West Coast, with

international reputations and doing commissions all over the world.  This small

building was completely surrounded by parking lots and painted on all four sides

with these running men doing various things; all four walls are different.

"Deep Eddy Vodka" was a mural along 29th Street.

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