THE LOCAL URBAN ARTISTS FROM ALL PARTICIPANT COUNTRIES
COSTA RICA
San José
> Yiyo
Urban artist and advertisement designer. His influences come from Costa Rican folk art, Latin American culture and the nature which surrounds him. He likes to play with organic figures, celebrities and typography.
> Mush
Member of THC Crew. Did a graffiti
featuring pre-colombian shapes with Boruca masks.
> Piloy
“Aesthetics is not all about beauty”.
This assertion also applies to the world of graffiti where there are
expressions far removed from the traditional concept of beauty but which are
still aesthetically pleasing, like the works of Piloy.
Costa Rican advertising designer and
student of painting. He is interested in photography, illustration, audiovisual
art and urban art. His likes the diametrically opposed, ranging from Kurt
Kobain’s Grunge to Bob Marley’s Reggae. He likes the grotesque, strong
lines and living colours.
> Jairo Miranda
“I am a visual artist, photographer,
designer, craftsman, traveller. I create based on the things I have at my
disposal and the place where I am. I use nature - dead or alive - as material
or subject. I criticize the means of mass control, capitalism, globalization
and the degradation of natural resources in the name of development and
technology.”
> Pihem
> Jp Navarrete
“Love is the only thing we have left
at the end of the day”. I love my alter-ego, it feeds my art. Because all is
desire, all is a lie, all is egoism. Everything is a blur until a picture
emerges.”
“My mural The creation of the Teddy Boy is a compilation of some of my
characters, a kind of homage to all the heroes of all the stories I’ve been
telling. The Teddy is the protagonist in this case as it is the one on which I
have been concentrating currently. I try to evoke positive reactions in the
spectator which is why I use lively and
happy colours.”
> Ghoke
> Chesr
> Zisco
GUATEMALA
Ciudad de Guatemala
> Ariz
„I am 20 years old. I know what
my art is. I hope my style and technique will be evident to others through my
work."
> Es
ES is a spiritual
illustrator who always uses the image of birds in his work - the faces, the
plumage - which symbolize consciousness, knowledge,freedom. He always includes
special features of the Guatemalan culture.
Graphic artist
influenced by Pop Art. She has done engravings, digital graphics and
performance art. She has also worked with acrylic. She is interested in social
critique and her acrylic expressions are abstract. She has exhibited in
Guatemala in urban spaces such as the Centro Histórico and has been part of exhibitions in museums such
as the Museum of Modern Art. Her works belong to private collections in Guatemala,
Mexico and the United States of America.
> Fla Ko
“It fascinates me
to be able to use lines, points and a spot of colour to create figures, human
beings, etc. I like to express myself on paper, wall, wood, any kind of surface
really. I try to capture the essence and identity of a human being whether it
is when he/she is laughing, when there is a certain look on the face or simply
the physical features.”
“I have been an urban
artist since 2003. My technique is to combine graphic design with graffiti to
produce a vectorial illustration style using lines which are well defined, cut
and marked. Sometimes I use a variety of styles in each work: characters,
textures, Throw-ups, Wildstyle.”
Degree in Graphic
Design; wall illustrator; creates characters and rabbits.
Bara is a Guatemalan
industrial designer. In addition to designing, Bara creates worlds of fantasy
with characters inspired by minimalism and street art. She expresses reality in
the form of caricatures, introducing a touch of the comic and the surreal into
daily life. She has done illustrations for several Guatemalan and international
magazines. She has also exhibited in Guatemala City, Oslo, New York,
California, Ottawa, London, San Salvador, and Baja California.
> Luis Fuentes
“I am an artist who
started doing graffiti 5 years ago. I now consider myself a graffiti artist. I
know I still have a lot to learn. I hope that people discover something
different within my art.”
"I am a just guy
who refused to grow up, which is why I like to draw zombies and surreal
creatures while listening to Rap. I have always thought that civilized people should
get paint on their hands. Not blood. Graphic designer by profession, artist by
vocation.”
> Cheks
“I am an urban
artist in Guatemala City. I am 20 years old. The style which I have developed
has been influenced by caricatures representing the multi-culture of the
society I live in. A large part of my inspiration comes from European artists
who create objects without imaginary limits in exaggerated dimensions, adapting
them to all kinds of surfaces. I find that really awesome! I use spray paint
and acrylic colours.”
“I am an
illustrator and graphic designer. What I really like to do is to illustrate,
imagine and invent rare creatures which live in their own world. They are my
friends and live with me.”
> Live Comments (Luisfer Izquierdo & Andrea Quezada)
“I am an artist and
I am 24 years old. I am interested in giving my world an aesthetic appeal.”
JAMAICA
Kingston
> Naecia Dixon
“I am an young artists living in Kingston, Jamaica and I am passionate about the Jamaican culture. I love using lots of colour in my work and, despite the mess I make while I am working, I am something of a perfectionist. I believe people should do what they love in life, otherwise NOT doing what they love will eventually kill them."
“I am an young artists living in Kingston, Jamaica and I am passionate about the Jamaican culture. I love using lots of colour in my work and, despite the mess I make while I am working, I am something of a perfectionist. I believe people should do what they love in life, otherwise NOT doing what they love will eventually kill them."
> David da Costa
“I design things.
Thanks for the chance to showcase a little bit of it.”
> Amanda Choo Quan
is a writer, designer and artist living in Jamaica. She is usually paid
to write about other people, so writing her own mini-biography is slightly
weird, but good – just like she hopes you'll see her art. She finds it
interesting the way humans look for patterns in everything.
> Ikem Smith
Illustrator,
musician and filmmaker
> Jonoi Messam
> Taj Francis
Freelance
Illustrator, Graphic Designer, Owner/ Creative Director at j. !Nk clothing. "I’m
a visual artist and I have a strong love for street art, and any form of public
art. I draw a lot of my own influence from street art and particular street
artists. The freedom and boundless
expression that it entails are the things that draw me to it. I believe art
should be public, and free for all to see and share in its experience"
> Naita Chamberlain
"I am an architect who has always had an
interest in the cultural arts. I found out about the street art project on
Facebook and decided to take part in this interesting venture. I
chose on a piece which I did back in high school in art class called '
Melancholy', the idea behind it is that no matter colour or race we're from, we
all go thru sadness, and its best to go thru it together. My
philosophy on life is that you should count your blessings at all times,
because you never know when your time will come, so give thanks for the
smallest things in life."
> Dahcia Hong
> Dahcia Hong
"Hi, I am Dahcia Hong. My contribution to the
mural was adapted from an older piece ‐ a challenge put forward to
create an abstract piece of art. My main premise was to use various
colours and textures to define the outcome, while adding the eye played
with the idea of the artwork looking back at the viewer. Many thanks to
the Urban Heartbeat team, as well as the other artists for having made
it an awesome experience."
MÉXICO
México D.F.
> Bean & Aoztoc
AOZTOC & BEAN, artist: visual, neo-primitive,
art sauvage. He uses neon as well as
pure raw colours; an indigenous Mexican, healer.
Mr. Petite is a grafitti and street artist. He
does simple, recreational drawings. He is a victim of his desires, an illustrator
of his hard life. He is self-taught and always happy to be able to paint his
gang friends. “Life takes us through thick and thin and I will show you that it
is child’s play”.
> Tuk`
“With this graphic-visual orientation– more
visual than graphic - which I try to create whether by hand, on a wall or on a
canvas, I try to transmit certain experiences or special moments and even do
adaptations with an imaginary character. I try to give the magic touch to all
that I do. My main objective is to satisfy and above all make the admirers of
my work smile.”
> Dyg` Nojoch
"I have clear ideas of what I want to express
based on my way of seeing the world. I paint what happens in reality or in my
thought. I like to show what is visible but which we forget to see on a daily
basis. I call my pictures monsters of my imagination. They are the basic pieces
through which my message is transmitted.”
> Spaik
“The impossible does not exist for those of us
who dream and want to continue living our dreams.”
is a designer and lover of
non-existent characters which he creates with a touch of humour. He began
experimenting with illustration and alternative intervention of space. He began
doing graphics in the street in 2007. He did stencils, stickers and posters
illegally and as part of a collective. For walls, he uses a mixed technique –
illustration and graffiti – which allows him to work with different materials
to generate texture and diverse forms. “Painting in the streets is exciting,
it’s the thrill of thinking that even though the space does not belong to you,
you can take it. Take it and show whatever you want, your way of seeing things,
whatever is happening around you.”
DFD appeared in 2009 in response to the need or
desire to express the non-conformity which we feel about how society functions
with all its defects and problems which pushes one to the other and make them
unstoppable. That is why he is called DeFectoDomino. The idea is to express our ideas and for these to be exposed directly
to the society because they arise from it. Although the DFD project is made up of
only two persons, it is open to collaboration from other artists.
> Arent Bolten
is a self-taught artist. He improvises and combines his love of nature with drawing and painting in simple forms which speaks to a subjective, mysterious and cyclical reality denoting the affinity between the real world and the spiritual one in which the greatest authority is energy and on which he tries to place emphasis.
NICARAGUA
Managua
> Ángel Soto
"I am 26 years old and I am freelance graphic designer and graffiti artist. I have been creating graffiti for 10 years now unter the name of Icono. In 2008, I joined several other graffiti aritist in Managua to form the collective El Chacuatol. I enjoy learning and imparting the philosophy of the hip hop culture through graffiti. I participate actively in a youth organization called Jóvenes por el Diálogo (young people for dialogue) which seeks to open spaces for reflection and dialogue among young people on social issues. I believe in teaching by doing and in setting a good example."
a.k.a ROKE (Nicaragua, 1986) Roke is a visual artist
with a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design. He is also a graffiti and multi-disciplinary
artist and has been interested in graffiti since secondary school. He entered
the world of graffiti in the early 2000s using other media and techniques and
is a constant figure in the local visual arts scene. He belongs to the
international collective Los Animales
and the local collective El Sonido de la
Ciudad. His vision is to share his own experience of graffiti/street art
and to promote hip hop culture in Nicaragua so that it continues to reach great
heights of competition.
> Rafael Rivas González
Nationality: Nicaragan
Tag: Break
Crew: StK, Cpa
León, Nicaragua. Signature: KRO. Caroline Broisin
is a graphic designer and illustrator. She is curious, enthusiastic and
creative. She is 24 years old, of French origin and arrived in Nicaragua at the
beginning of 2011, ready to explore and learn everything about the culture, at
the same hoping to make a little contribution. With her nifty personality, she
likes to organize cultural and artistic events, participate in artistic
activities such as illustration, graphics engravings and graffiti. Graffiti has
always attracted her because of its wild, ephemeral and often rebellious face. The
urban heartbeat project allowed her
to do her first official graffiti side and get to know other artists. This
graffiti experience was like a revelation to her and it will not be her last.
Jinotepe, Carazo, Nicaragua, 1985. Social
communicator.
> Guimel Navarro Alemán
Signature: CROW
> Dorian Serpa
"He sido de los iniciadores del movimiento de grafiti en Nicaragua, en los primeros años
Noventa y, desde hace casi una década, soy también artista de tatuaje.
Considero el grafiti y el tatuaje como dos maneras equivalente de
expresar mi arte, aunque la ventaja del tatuaje es que no queda estático
en una pared, sino que se mueve por el mundo junto con la persona que
lo trae. En los últimos años he tenido la oportunidad de pintar y tatuar en varios países de Amérca Latina, así como Europa y estados Unidos.
> Stchez
"Que las armas disparen dulces. Y las bombas algodón de azúcar. De nuestras manos estalla el arte, hacemos arte para combatir la guerra"
> Stk Danser (Danilo Espinoza)
“I started doing
graffiti in 2010, influenced by my brother Stchez and because I had a great
interest in urban art. My brother is my greatest inspiration and we work
together in a group called Stk. I am a graffiti artist and illustrator.”
> Jean-Philippe Colin
“My name is
Jean-Philippe Colin. I am 33 years and I am French. My interest in drawing,
colours and shapes developed in my childhood. In 1994, graffiti entered my
life. Today when I travel I want to share my painting, my art and my techniques
with people everywhere. In France I work for an organization which has the goal
of changing the perception and mentality
of young people with regard to vandalism.”
> Sime
PANAMÁ
Ciudad de Panamá
> NEL ONE (Eduardo de Leon)
Eduardo de Leon is
34 years old. He got into Graffiti in 1993 and is the CEO of Panamá Graffiti, publicist, designer and creative
director. After living for 6 months in Hannover, Germany, he went back to
Panama with a somewhat broadened concept of Graffiti which did not exist in
those days in Panama. He started painting and created the graffiti movement
which he had learned about in his travels through Europe. He is now known as a
pioneer in the field of urban art in the city of Panama. He is always on the
cutting edge in his creative endeavours and is involved in artistic projects
which target the new generation.
A bit of sweetness and cravings mix up to produce
brilliant things. This is the purpose of La Fabrica de Malvaviscos (The Factory
of Marshmallows), to be the branch to an imaginary world, and give a magical
touch to ordinary things. Annie Pereda is the guardian, engineer and director
of this factory. In the real world, an illustrator and independent art
director.
“We are two
illustrators and graphic designers in Panama: Karla ‘Luna’ Benítez (24 years old) and Fer Garvey (27). We’ve
combined our styles to create special things. Every stroke is unique, as unique as the country where we were born, each
illustration is immortal, as immortal as the emotions which we sometimes
experience.”
María Camila Bernal is a Colombian graphic designer
living in the city of Panama. She loves images and its application in multiple
formats. She is the owner of the Tienda de Remedios where one can acquire
solutions for a variety of purposes: to create an ambience, to set up a café,
paraphernalia for sketching and filming, and even solutions for love.
> SUMO (Manuel Choy)
Since the beginning
of the 2000s Manuel Choy has been using the city surfaces as his canvas and the
city as his gallery. He uses different techniques and materials such as
stencils, stickers, paste and spray paint but always seeks to create visual
impact. As an active artist of the local graffiti/street art movement, he has
had the opportunity to paint locally and abroad with international artists, on
various occasions in New York (5pointz) and in Barcelona. His style is
influenced by the global graffiti and muralism movement, graphic design, music,
mechanics, technology and architecture. His last walls have been notable of
because of their large scale.
Rolando de Sedas is a multi-disciplinary
Panamanian artist. With his eco-neo-pop style, he creates eyecandys or little visual treats as much on canvas as on the surfaces
throughout the city.
> Gladys Turner Bosso
Graphic artist,
cultural administrator and cinema and science fiction aficionado. Responsible person for
the processes, conservation and contents of the arts section of the Bohemia
Fest-Arte Emergente, a festival of which the principal objective is to publicize
the work of emerging artists in Panama. In addition to developing her artistic
work, she also advises the National Library of Panama on architecture, design and
art. “Art explores reality.”
> Alexander Ievleva
“I am from where
the sea is divided in two and the sky is unique and carried away by the
currents, empiric knowledge is absorbed and moulded in my head in order to give
expression to harmony.” Artist/painter/graphic
designer/musician. 21 years.
Thomson Moore is an
artist who was born in the swamplands of southern Georgia in the United States.
He currently lives and works in the jungles of the Republic of Panama. He
documents the culture of Latin America. He is influenced by the resourcefulness
of the less fortunate with the tropical palette.
> Jacqueline Brandwayn
“I am a Colombian
artist. I began to paint on the walls in Amsterdam in 2003. I have been living
in Panama for 7 years and my passion is painting legs wherever I can, spreading
feminine energy in a world dominated by masculine art.”
REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA
Santo Domingo
“My work is all
part of a heterogeneous artistic trend, multi-faceted and multi-linguistic
where the traditional notion of style which is understood as formal regularity
is abandoned in favour of the conceptual need of communicating ideas. My
artistic interests include sculpting, painting, installations, photography,
videography, performance art, etc. as well as literature (poetry and prose). In
the urban heartbeat project, I worked
on the idea of arming and disarming concepts: disarming anguish, fear, hate,
violence, ignorance and lack of communication; arming valour, faith, knowledge,
hope, dialogue, love, peace and purpose.”
“In my painting, I
like to address themes which concern me: the girl who told me no; whether the new government is just like or
worse than the previous one, the economic crisis … and at times, I can be very
spontaneous and if I am hungry while I am painting I paint even fried chicken –
literally.”
> Ana de León
Ana de Leon is a multi-disciplinary
artist, student of philosophy, the mystic, mythology and the mysteries of the
universe. She is the founder and coordinator of the multi-disciplinary movement
COLEACTIVO. “Art is the window through which you can enter into the mind of an
artist.”
Luis hidalgo is an
illustrator and fashion designer. He graduated from the Altos de Chavón / School of Design and has more than 10 years’
experience as a teacher in the area of fashion design and illustration. His
illustrations have been used in the promotional material for DominicanaModa2011
as well as on his project 365; they have also appeared in national and
international publications.
> Luis Geraldino
"Mi nombre es Luis Geraldino
y soy doctor por vocación, geek
por mutación y patafísico por evolución."
“The whale was
naughty and swallowed Pinnochio’s papa”.Nicolás Urrely (2 years old)
“I am a visual
artist with training in fashion design. I do not have any special preference
with regard to medium, I just work with what the theme and the process present,
mixing textures, colours, dreams and realities.”
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Port of Spain
> Dean Arlen
“The idea of exploring the living space has consumed me since returning from the Ontario College of Art and Design, which I attended on a Commonwealth Fellowship. There I pursued a multi-disciplinarian approach to sculpture, through installation art. This compounded my jewellery studies, done at John D Technical Institute and my visual arts diploma, completed at the University of the West Indies. The projects that I engage, are extensions of my studio practice where my collages and assemblages paintings have allowed me to create an urban philosophical art and design language that has strengthen my resolve to reinterpret them into my very own urban and rural spaces.”
"I'm a writer and visual artist based in Sangre Grande. At the moment, I do freelance writing, book illustrations and other art projects for a living. My writing has been published in various literary journals, and a first collection of poetry is currently being edited for publication. Much of my work focuses on the female figure in relation to landscape and garden spaces."
> Raquel Vasquez La Roche
Venezuelan
visual communicator with Trinidadian and Chilean roots. She
started her visual studies in Venezuela and continued at the University
of the West Indies where she obtained a BA in Visual Arts. Raquel
believes that art and design can be an influential tool for awakening
sensibility and consciousness in people. Currently, she works as a
designer at The Garage 20 and is the organizer of the 1st international mail art exhibition in Trinidad & Tobago, Self-portrait by Postal Art T&T.
"I am an architect/urban planner. Whenever daily deadlines don't chase me, I cruise
in between photography, graphic design and blogging. My artistic
representations always try to tell a story based on meaningful themes
and daily characters. Through the years, I’ve been using stencils that
can make easy
patterns. I can capture a lot through the lens of my camera that I can
turn into ‘happy’ things to show and remember just by going around the
block where I can paint them or stick them on the wall."
> Marie-Elena Joseph
"I attended the College of
Art and Design where I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in
Illustration. Work experiences include Nickelodeon/MTV New York, primarily as a
design intern. During this time, I worked on various illustrations for famous
cartoons and shows such as Spongebob
and Dora the Explorer. I’m now
working as a graphic designer/illustrator."
> Pinky & Emigrante (Luis Vasquez La roche y Alicia Milne)
As
visual artists, they have been producing work together in the public
space since 2011. Their tag, P&E, meaning Pinky & Emigrante, is a
playful reference to their shared interests in ideas of home and
perception. Luis hails from Venezuela and currently works as a
Production Manager in an animation studio. Alicia is a Trinidad national
and teaches art in a local secondary school.
"I’m 19 years old and I have
been drawing/painting for as long as I can remember. I’m a resident of the
Santa Cruz area and as a result I have always been close to nature. To describe
my art is to basically describe myself. Most of my pieces are African
influenced but are also a mix with a lot of Buddhist images and ideals. My
drawings are all lines without attempting to be ‘real’ in anyway. The basis of
all my pieces is to extend the mind beyond what we experience every day."
Brianna
McCarthy is a mixed media artist who lives and works in Trinidad and
Tobago. Her work takes on the intricacies and dynamics of representing
Afro-Caribbean women who are portrayed as being strong, long-suffering,
exoticised and picturesque beings against a backdrop of poverty,
hardship, abuse and/or scorn. McCarthy’s constructions and
representations revolt against and subvert the stereotypical trends of
representing the black body. Through collage, drawing, illustration, and
painting, she constructs and manipulates a range of deeply personal and
emotional experiences within the constructions.
> Richard Taylor
"I'm a self-taught mixed media and digital artist. My
preference is usually graphite and inks, I also dabble in water colour and
acrylics. On the odd occasion, I design on wooden bangles, walls and clothing.
A lot of my work is inspired by popular culture. My philosophy stems from
something Alan Moore (acclaimed graphic story writer) said about his work. He
said, ‘I didn't want to tell people what to think. I just wanted to tell people
to consider some of the extreme little elements, which nevertheless do recur
regularly throughout human history’.” And
to me, it turned into a personal motto with my work."
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