Art Madrid'23 – URBAN ART ICONS, CHAPTER I

Within the exhibition "Urban Art Icons", we approach the work (and personality) of Blek le Rat, The London Police, Shepard Fairey and Mark Jenkins. The vindication role of urban art leans on many referents of our society to build a impact message. In the construction of the narrative, the artists resort to different techniques and aesthetics, and in the case of these four artists, their works usually resort to a unique concept, which they reinterpret and use to feed their discourse.

BLEK LE RAT

Blek le Rat is one of the first artists who made of Urban Art what it is today. His jump into the streets came after having studied at the School of Fine Arts and Architecture, in Paris. Despite his academic training, his revolutionary spirit prompted him to make the city his own particular canvas, before leaping to international action. His first works were made directly on the walls of the French capital, which earned him a conviction for damages on the property. From that moment on, he began to work a new technique, the stencil, with such a success that street art of the late 2oth century could not be understood without this tool. His glued works, instead of painted on the walls, were the ideal vehicle for his artistic narrative, where the message of political denunciation was a constant.

The political and social iconography characterises the imaginary of the French artist Xavier Prou. Rats and soldiers are the emblematic images associated with his work. The rat, animal that carried the Plague to the Middle Ages symbolises freedom, and Blek le Rat began to represent it to announce to the observer that the graffiti would spread worldwide, just like the Plague in the Middle Ages. The characters of the father of the stencil seek to move, stir consciences, the reaction to art, the provocation.

Blek Le Rat

His Master is Voiceless red, 2008

Serigraphy

74 x 72cm

Blek Le Rat

Resist Against The Imposters, 2007

Serigraphy

65 x 54cm

SHEPARD FAIREY

Shepard Fairey is one of the most representative artists of the American underground scene, although he prefers to call himself a populist and provocateur. Fairey's artistic style is unique, and it is inevitable to relate his works both because of his aesthetics and his topics with the propaganda posters used during Soviet Russia. The activist and revolutionary message of his works, in which he defends progress and justice in society, together with his singular iconography, have turned his work into a communication channel of enormous social repercussion through his impressions, stickers, murals and posters.

The creation of the famous poster with the image of the former American fighter "André the Giant" with the word "OBEY", was the definitive step for the American artist to take the leap to fame. Music, social and political criticism, popular culture and environmental issues are the most recurrent subjects in his artistic career. His influences are multiple: Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, street art, psychedelic rock posters of the 60s, musical icons such as Bob Marley or Sex Pistols. Some of these topics can be seen in works like "Vote" or "Earth Crisis".

Shepard Fairey

Misfits, 2017

Screen printing on paper

61 x 46cm

Shepard Fairey

Big brother is watching you, 2006

Screen printing on paper

61 x 46cm

Shepard Fairey

End Corruption, 2015

Serigraphy HPM, mixed media and collage on wood

61 x 46cm

THE LONDON POLICE

The work of the British collective The London Police, currently formed by the artist duo Chaz Barrisson and Bob Gibson, two of its founding members, is easily recognizable by its genuine "LADS" icons, characters with round heads, simple bodies and happy expressions. When they moved to Amsterdam in 1998, they were called to modernize the decadent streets of what was the world capital of drugs.

TLP has invaded the urban spaces of many cities with murals in which they combine circular and linear elements in black and white, characteristic "boys" and architectural illustrations. The London Police's works have gone from street walls to the walls of galleries in more than 35 countries around the world, examples of which are their drawings in indelible ink on canvas such as "Keith Egg Peterson rides again" or "Samurai Magic ".

The London Police

George Rotterdam, 2013

Marker on fabric

40 x 40cm

The London Police

Samurai Magic, 2016

Indelible ink on fabric

40 x 40cm

MARK JENKINS

Although urban art easily identifies with mural work, graffiti and painting, it is more difficult to specialise in sculpture within this discipline. However, the main line of work of Mark Jenkins, an installation artist who dares with the urban space and who usually takes advantage of the elements of the city to create a coherent and witty critical discourse. Born in Virginia, his first work started in Rio de Janeiro, where he began experimenting with plastic and tape to create hollow figures interacting with the environment. In 2005 he returned to Washington to start a collaborative project with artist Sandra Fernández: "Størker project". With this proposal, the duo Jenkins and Fernández invaded the streets of many cities with small figures of babies made in transparent plastic that created an active dialogue with urban elements.

The subsequent work of this artist continued to evolve to incorporate new materials, merge techniques, and experiment with new proposals, risking more and more with the dimensions of the works and the scope of their impact on the city. One of the milestones that have most marked his career was his collaboration with Greenpeace since 2008. From that moment on, a significant change in Jenkins' narrative discourse is evident. His projects transformed into art complaint where awareness of the environment and the free use of the weapons are recurring themes in his work. This is what happens in "The Dugout Blue" or "Boys 2 men", pieces in which the artist questions the double morality of Western society about who is authorised to use weapons and who does not, or how anonymity allows transgressing the rules based on fear and ignorance. His hooded figures delve into the icon of the anonymous terrorist while posing the paradox of arming their characters with water pistols. An acid criticism of the collective behaviour of xenophobic reaction, distrust and boom of ultra-rightist movements that are gaining ground in the 21st century.

Mark Jenkins

The Dugout Blue, 2015

Mixed media

131 x 77cm

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In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.