See No Evil: Three winners chosen to stay in Nelson Street
WITH less than a week to go before 30 international artists set about transforming Nelson Street, the Post can exclusively reveal which murals will stay for See No Evil 2012.
We asked you to vote to save your favourite piece of artwork and you did so in your hundreds.
The response was so positive that organisers decided three paintings would be saved. These are Nick Walker's suited man pouring a tin of red paint down the wall, El Mac's woman and child and Aryz's five-story high wolf boy.
Mr Walker, who won the largest share of the votes, is one of the world's best-known street artists. Born in 1969, he emerged from the infamous and ground-breaking Bristol graffiti scene of the early 1980s.
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As a forerunner of the British graffiti phenomenon, his work has become a blueprint for hundreds of emerging artists. In a recent interview he said it was important to keep art in the public realm.
He said: "If an artist calls him or herself a street artist then it is imperative to be actively painting in social space, to keep the art form alive. A wall, a shutter, a building, an alley way; a blending of aesthetics, humour and the gentle nudge of an idea might just change how a passerby views their day. By changing a known environment, you look again at a familiar site and perhaps see the world a little differently, if just for a moment."
Mr Walker's work has been embraced by the record, fashion and film industries. He was commissioned by Stanley Kubrick to recreate the graffitied areas of New York for Eyes Wide Shut. More recently Nick's infamous and recognisable Vandal character – an artist who disguises himself as a quintessential English gentleman in order to get away with artistic vandalism, was featured in the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling video.
El Mac's woman and child is another mural that will be staying for See No Evil 2012.
Born in Los Angeles in 1980 to an engineer and an artist, Mac has been creating and studying art independently since childhood. His primary focus has been the lifelike rendering of human faces and figures. He has drawn inspiration from the surrounding Mexican and Chicano culture of Phoenix and the American Southwest, religious art, pin-up art, graffiti, and a wide range of classic artists such as Caravaggio, Mucha, and Vermeer.
The final piece of work which will stay was the first to arrive last year.
Originally born in California, Aryz is based in Barcelona and part of MM Crew, he works with spray paint and paint rollers for his huge works.
With the exception of ROA's black and white fox, which was painted several weeks ago, the rest of the murals in Nelson Street will be white washed on Sunday ahead of the festival which takes place from Monday, August 13, to Sunday, August 19.
Comments
by Graffiti123
Wednesday, August 08 2012, 6:32PM
“They were NOT chosen by the public!!
See No Evil said they were staying ages ago and that was the plan all along for them to stay, as it would be too much hard work to cover over!
What a farce!”
by dicktator
Wednesday, August 08 2012, 6:18PM
“All graffiti does is brutalise any area, making it threatening, cold and despoiled. Even Nelson St looked better without this dross spray painted everywhere! How many fans and so called artists of this type of vandalism are contributing towards the costs of this event? Guess us poor saps who pay our Council tax are picking up the bill for this deluded fiasco.”
by lsquire1234
Wednesday, August 08 2012, 10:31AM
“@Geeveeh:
Nelson St was a characterless dive. The only reason anyone would ever spend time on Nelson St was because the buses seemed to stop there for 20 minutes.
Now it is an area of cultural significance showing some of the best examples of street art in the world. Regardless of whether you like it or not, you should be proud that your city has actually acknowledged its culture rather than simply force feeding half baked ideas of civic pride that don't resonate with the people that actually live there.”
by Bluebluemoon
Wednesday, August 08 2012, 9:34AM
“I think it transforms an otherwise bland building.”
by geeveeh
Wednesday, August 08 2012, 5:31AM
“YUCK how awful. BEP and other idiots encouraging graffiti the modern buzz word for criminal damage.”