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POST GRAFFITI IN ITALY & USA

BOLOgna 21 January - 4 february 2012 Galleria del Circolo artistico Corte Isolani 7A

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Post Graffiti in ItalY AND USA

21 Jan. - 4 Feb. 2012 Galleria del Circolo Artistico di Bologna, Corte Isolani 7a

Edited by Oddone Sangiorgi, Bartolomeo De Gioia

Produced & Powered by Consorzio Fia, Fabbrica di Idee ed Azioni

Index Preface by Oddone Sangiorgi ----------------------------------- pag.7 Jacob Kimvall - WHATCHOOWRITE? ----------------------------- pag.10 At the beginning was.. ------------------------------------------ pag.15

Artists and Works Dado ------------------------------------------------------ pag.22

Daniele Falanga

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KayOne ------------------------------------------------------ pag.40

Paul Kostabi

Mambo ------------------------------------------------------ pag.56

UnikProdukt ------------------------------------------------ pag.62

V3rbo

Mr Wany ------------------------------------------------------ pag.78

Flick Yoli ------------------------------------------------------ pag.88

TMNK @ Spazio Ratti-Lavin

Top Italian Writers @ Arcadia Concept Art Store --------- pag.107

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Preface

by Oddone Sangiorgi

Just to make forgive me for the possible “naivety” of this introduction, I should point out that I am not an art critic or a curator, but a “simple” passionate and art collector, fascinated by the contemporary expressive currents. Having subtitled the exhibition “post graffiti” has caused some critics, because the experts reminded me that the word “graffiti”, instead of the more correct “writing”, seems to be coined by a confused policeman of Philadelphia in the ‘60s, that was taking note of a wall covered by this new and unknown form of “expression”, and not knowing how to define it, he solved bureaucratically and summarily the problem with the word “graffiti”. In fact, in the early ’70s, it is the great philosopher, critic and theorist Jean Baudrillard, to speak and write “graffiti”; he is actually one of the first to understand the importance and the revolutionary power of the the phenomenon, documenting it also photographically in his frequent visits to New York. After this, other styles were born and developed and perhaps I should have referred also to post writing, post lettering, post wall painting, post street art, also emphasizing “the consecutio tempurum” that leads us to today. On this perspective I refer and invite you to read the exhaustive essay by Fabiola Naldi “Do The Right Wall” that clarify the misconceptions of “...these inconvenient and restrictive acronyms for the artists who are part of it, but useful for those who approach to the various different visual codes..”. However graffiti, comprehensively understood and for the collectivity, identifies historically an artistic journey, as we have already considered, wide, articulated and, in my opinion, concluded. I affirm this aware to unleash the wrath of “graffiti writers” who feel alive and productive, while the word “post” brings us to the actuality, to an evolution and open perspective and it is. for this reason, that I keep on with my thought. Returning to the reasons which leaded Circolo Artistico of Bologna and me to promote and realize the exhibition TAG INDELEBILI: Post Graffiti in Italy and the United States, there are different motivations: firstly, for post-graffiti we intend and want to investigate the stylistic trends that have their roots in the culture of graffiti writing and street art that realize themselves in many disciplines such as Painting, Sculpture, Graphic Design, Computer graphic, Design, Illustration, Fashion, Architecture, Photography, Video Art, Calligraphy. The fundamental difference between street art/graffiti writing and post-graffiti trends are explicit in the fields of application of the production of the Artist.

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TAG INDELEBILI The street artist or graffiti writer creates a work that is placed in public places following a specific creative path with the aim of notoriety, in competition with common experiences artists that express themselves with a similar code; a post graffiti artist express himself in “conventional” disciplines, or also in Major Arts, dealing with creative people who have a training and experiences not openly connected with the taste of graffiti or street art. However, it is evident that the proposed styles have permeated every production for young people and, more generally the contemporary, showing the strength of impact and persistence of this artistic genre. So, there is not a final complete definition of the art of post graffiti that, as we have seen, has its roots in that of Graffiti and Street Art, both born in Philadelphia in the late Sixties on trains and that develop later in New York in the Seventies to reach a certain maturity of style in the mid-Eighties, witnessed with the realization of Style Wars (documentary on New York subway graffiti) and crystallized with the movie Wild Style. The phenomenon of graffiti then spread itself worldwide, finding in Europe a fertile ground. In Italy it spread in the ‘80s, but even from the first American influence it had striked some of our italian artists. On the phenomenon of Street Art and Graffitism, there is a large repertoire of exhibitions, festivals, books, films, documents and studies. In 1982, here in Bologna, Francesca Alinovi (with Renato Barilli, Roberto and Marco Daolio Mango) organized the “Telepazzia”, the first appearance of graffiti in Italy. It is the same Alinovi to curate the exhibition “Art of the boundary: New York Graffiti” (1984), which leads to Bologna U.S. writers such as Futura 2000, Lady Pink, Toxic and many others. This Italy-Usa comparison on post graffiti, may seem ambitious but, while at the historical constitution moment of Graffiti and Street Art, archetypes and U.S. protagonists became the reference for the whole world, in the post-graffiti panorama, especially the Italian one, some new expressive languages were developing, while the American of thirty and forty years old maybe go again through already traced paths, creating interesting works but more “traditional”, in a persistence perspective. This is one of the possible interpretations of this exhibition that offers a non-exhaustive comparison between different actors of the contemporary scene, chosed in an absolute arbitrary way by the organizers, aware to not represent critically the entire artistic scene, but the worthy one that...we like... Tag Indelebili: post graffiti in Italy and USA will also be the first exhibition in Italy completely readable (tagged) using QR Codes (Quick Response Code) that are the new smart barcode heirs. These are actually small squares, associated to an individual works, consisting of dots and lines that mean nothing to the naked eye but, captured by a mobile phone connected to the Internet, and provided with an appropriate software, free and fast to download, reveal a wealth of information on the works to which they are associated and the authors. The added value of Qr Code is to allow an immediate passage of information in a “customer friendly” vision, which means easy, in real time and for free. In the context of an art exhibition where there is a strong influx of visitors, even international, this service, in a simple and autonomous way, provides the possibility to capture useful and interesting information in different languages.

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WHATCHOOWRITE? by Jacob Kimvall

“I saw you at work over here and I just want to find out what you’re filming.” “We’re making a film on subway graffiti in New York.” The man who asked the question is lightskinned and thin. His white hair is thinning somewhat over a receding forehead, but it is combed in a neat side parting. Linen is visible under his white cotton shirt, and his red tie is impeccably knotted. He is old, but radiates vital energy, his eyes, behind brown horn-rimmed glasses, demanding but in no way unpleasant or threatening. “Why did you take this particular neighbourhood here?” he asks, looking first to the right, then to the left,

“S-E-E-N.” “That’s his name?” “Yes, that’s what he writes.” “Or is it a nom de plume?” “It is a nom de plume.” “I see.” The man nods slightly, moves his head to the right and looks away, looking satisfied and

Photo 1: “Seen” in front of one of his works exhibited at shows in Paris Seen City in 2007

before carrying on “What’s unusual, is there more graffiti here than other places? I hope not...” “We’re here because one of the best graffiti writers lives around here. He writes Seen.” The man starts and slightly bows his head, as if to extend his ear towards the other, as if he hadn’t quite heard: “What is it?”

at the same time pensive, then turns back again. “You wouldn’t tell me his real name?” “No.” “Why not? Would he get in trouble, or wouldn’t he be glorified by it?”

TAG INDELEBILI attempt to maintain the secrecy of your identity. Stendahl is the most famous of several noms de plume used by the French author Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842). It is said that the only body to have a true overview of Beyle’s writing at the time of his death was the police, who assiduously, and with sense Photo 2: The cover of the DVD Style Wars republished in 2003

The scene takes place in the 1982 epochal documentary film Style Wars. It is an effective and skilful presentation of one of the main characters of the film, the Bronx graffiti writer Seen, and most likely took place by chance during shooting. It also points at two important but complicated aspects of graffiti. First of all is the tag as a pseudonym, or “nom de plume”, to use the expression the welleducated and clear-minded elderly man quickly finds. The expression originates from the French. It literally means “pen-name”, and refers to how an author conceals his identity behind a fabricated name, a name that only represents the pen that writes the text. The reasons for a writer using a nom de plume are varied: artistic, commercial, career-related and so on. In the strict, normative sexual conventions of the 19th century, many female writers and polemicists published books under male names, to protect their reputation, to avoid being judged by narrower standards or to gain greater artistic freedom.

of literary style, managed to register practically all his writings, no matter the name they were published under. That the graffiti writer work under an assumed name may seem like a self-evident comment, something so obvious it need not be said. Since most graffiti writers either choose or are forced to work illegally, it is, if nothing else, a matter of crass necessity. Simultaneously, it is about something other than a nom de plume in the case of the graffiti writer. For the tag (in the sense of the writer’s alter ego or name) is the most usual motif in the three expressions of graffiti: tags (in the sense of the calligraphically written word), throw-ups and pieces.

The more repressive a society, the more likely it is that its artists will use a pseudonym. Sometimes it is limited to a vain

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Photo 3: Martha Cooper, Dondi. Children of the Grave Part 3

a recognising and appreciative nod, and It is this second aspect that becomes evi- not “How do you spell that?” dent in the dialogue from Style Wars quoted above. The filmmaker doesn’t say that Seen’s Because the tag, the graffiti writer’s nom de name is Seen, but that he writes Seen, which plume, is not a pseudonym as it is commonly is repeated a second time, when the elderly understood. Nor is it a piece of property, gentleman asks if it is his name. Yes, that’s but something in between. That is to say, it what he writes, is the answer. lay in between something you are and something you own. A graffiti writer is what he writes. Today, Consequently, it is twenty years later, I still recall my confusion a bit of both, but when I was first asked: what you write? mostly, it is something you do: What do they mean, what do I write, I won- “That’s his name?” dered, what my tag was? The two somewhat “Yes, that’s what older guys who had asked the question lo- he writes.” The oked at each other indulgently. I knew so- term graffiti wrimething was wrong, but I would only later ter (or just writer) understand that I had revealed myself as a denotes that wricompletely banal toy. ting is not just intertwined with “Whatchoowrite?” It’s an important question, the individual’s but also one you don’t asked any old way. It identity, but also is a matter of trust that requires discretion. I with graffiti quickly learned not to come waltzing in and practitioners as asking anybody what they wrote. It is a de- a group. licate question in the relationship between In my teens, two writers. It should preferably be met with one of my great

TAG INDELEBILI idols was the writer Dondi. He was in Style Wars, and died in 1998 at the tender age of 37. His name was Donald Joseph White, but he will be known to the world as Dondi. He was Dondi because he wrote Dondi. Like many other writers he alternated between several different tags. As with Stendahl, it is the most famous pseudonym that the surviving world uses. If you wished to sum up Dondi’s different tags, it would go something like this: Dondi also wrote Naco and Bus 129, and for a while Asia. In addition to these words, he worked another dozen or so, all of which occupy a position between themes and names. Nom de guerre, a battle name or soldier’s name, is a term closely related to nom de plume. Yasser Arafat, Che Guevara, and Pancho Villa are all familiar noms de guerre – and all of them literally soldiers’ names. But there is a further tradition in which the term has a meaning closer to what I am seeking. The Swedish encyclopaedia Nordisk Familjebok’s ele-

venth volume (published in 1887) lists it as: The name occasionally assumed by a dramatic or lyrical artist instead of his own name, and under which he appears before of the audience. Here, in this definition, I see something of my experience of the tag. Perhaps the graffiti writer’s pseudonym lies in a no-man’s-land between visual art, poetry and acting. The graffiti writer is what he writes, and what he writes is often both the performance and the name under which he appears before the audience. It is simultaneously a play on identity and an artistic project. The graffiti writer’s nom de plume is thus not only an attempt at withholding one’s identity but an artistically productive strategy, an implied but unexpressed and almost subconscious concept creating both meaning and content in graffiti art. That’s his name cause that’s what he writes. Jacob Kimvall Published in the book 1207 (Dokument förlag, 2007)

...at the BEGINNING IT was...

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The wall, you know, attracts the writing: not a wall, in the city, is free of graffiti. In a way,it is it that releases a writing energy, it is it that writes and that writing concerns me: nothing is more voyeur than a written wall, because nothing is seen, read with a greater intensity. No one has written on the wall - and everyone reads it. Roland Barthes

I still never called myself a graffiti writer although I use spray paint and I legally (and illegally) paint all over the city (soon to paint over 100 gates in NYC, legally). I make paintings with spray paint and I think I have a lot to offer to the graffiti world. Kenny Sharf

TAG INDELEBILI The trains down there are a large book, and while you write the pages, while the formations are placed on the train, wagons pages are tossed around. The book is scattered and redispersed as a game of dice. The letters have armed themselves while scattered along the ... path. And the company continued to play this great game to disperse by breaking the sequence numbers of the cars. When you put two cars together you get a sentence ion. And these words began to make sense. Rammellzee,

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity, Speak to the wise with the voice of insanity. Cause I am a man of thousand faces. Bansky

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I don’t think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it. Keith Haring

I did most of my ‘getting up’ alone. I was always worried about (them) doing something stupid. For dangerous missions, I rolled solo. Futura 2000

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Our work was very hard to understand at the beginning. People here in New York tend to be frightened of things they don't understand. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring were more palatable, it didn't frighten people as much as our work, as our presence. We were very young, and because we didn't pay for our paint they regarded us as thieves. Dondi

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t listen to what art critics say. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is. Jean Michel Basquiat

...The Artists...

TAG INDELEBILI DADO

Alessandro Ferri

Alessandro Ferri was born in Bologna, Italy on the 22nd of December 1975. He lives in Bologna, and works in Italy and overseas. The starting point for Dado was the dedication to writing understood as an artistic discipline, like the architecture of the letter and a mathematical calculation, like labyrinthine geometric solids and sinuous bands of letters that

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twist among themselves. At the end of the 90s, after having the amazing opportunity to work in collaboration with the already famous writer “Phase II”, Dado starts to look for a new way to use the new fonts on a speculation, first intuitive and then geometric, of the letter, breaking it down, destructing it and recreating it, capturing a whole new and different total and complete attention to new observers of the phenomenon and between writers. Dado deepens his graphologist studies, joined by the Dominican Church, turning his research into formal concept. First by the theoretical teachings of the professors at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna (IT) and then with the continuous experimentation of unpublished techniques, for Dado writing becomes a world of evolutions and in endless transformations. The materials and techniques, always different, the tools that are part of his research, that grow his field of action. Creatively playing and modifying the functions and purposes of the dif-

ferent materials and techniques, Dado finds hidden potential suitable for his creativity, forging them inside him. This personal research pushed him into a more careful and accurate general study of the arts, and a lot of this was spent on graphology, at graphics and sculpted drawings and finally the limit of the wall paint. Dado creates the way to connect the sign on the wall to a homogenous entity; the wall becomes part of the drawing and vice versa, a harmonic combination of a deep primitive action like graffiti. His necessity of expression of words, concepts and sensitivity, through the sign made him discover the uniqueness of the ancient oriental art of graphology, today his reference point. “.....graffiti are a discipline that encompasses the dimension

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of the project and intuitive of the sign, through which man, with a simple tract can express a powerful and effective concept and achieve the most important and intelligentâ&#x20AC;?.... Dado Even today, the majority of writers are considered outlaw artists , and it is not simple to perceive the thin line that separates vandalism from art, and Dado has been a promoter of the new form of art in front of the public opinion and the local administrations. For fifteen years Dado works with the administration of the Municipality of Bologna and other cities, he made himself a tool of decoration of urban furniture, railway stations and industrial zones, of schools; he has held seminars at 24

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the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna (IT) and the University of Padova (IT) at the Faculty of History of Contemporary Art, and participated in numerous lessons on writing at the schools. In these years, Dado has exhibited in galleries, museums, and public spaces, and in a short period of time he worked with a

number of important artists in Italy and overseas, and with different companies. As a result of his artistic career, in 2007 he opened his business. Dadoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art operates in different fields, preparations and decorations, graphics, interior and exterior design, sculptures, study and designing of objects.

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MURETTO: IL REPERTO mixed technique bas-relief cm 65x60x10

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PAESAGGIO URBANO: LA STRADA cm.50x40 Mixed technique on canvas

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Title:Â DADO8 calco 1/10 relief in mixed technique cm.150x40x10 A harmonious dialogue between sculpture and painting

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Title:Â DADO8 calco 8/10 relief in mixed technique cm.150x40x10 A harmonious dialogue between sculpture and painting

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Title:Â DADO8 calco 4/10 relief in mixed technique cm.150x40x10 A harmonious dialogue between sculpture and painting

TAG INDELEBILI Daniele Falanga was born in Messina in 1974. Daniele Falanga In 2007 he graduated in Administration Sciences at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Siena. In 2001 he opened his own Art Studio / Workshop in Messina. In 2005 he received the Quadrenniale Prize in Monte Carlo, the “Antonello da Messina” Prize and “The Royal Art General Certificate of Hans Christian Andersen” Prize in Copenhagen. In 2009 he was chosen as the artistic interpreter of the Marconi Year, on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial of the Nobel Prize to the scientist Guglielmo Marconi and the GMFE Guglielmo Marconi ICT Global Forum&Exhibition; for this occasion his own exposition SAGOME A BOLOGNA WIRED is organized, in the heart of Bologna, edited by Oddone Sangiorgi, with the preface of Luca Faccenda, artistic director of the National Gallery of Florence. Always in 2009 he collaborated with Paul Kostabi in the construction of a 4-hands works, which is exposed in Duchi di Santo Stefano’s Palace of Taormina and published in the catalogue of the American artist’s exhibitions in Italy. Then he collaborates with Enzo Migneco, also known as TOGO, in the realization of a great 4-hands work exposed in Taormina at the Mazzullo Foundation in the anthologic institutional exibition of the Master and published in his catalogue. Afterwards he collaborates with Thomas Berra and Cesare Filistad, executing in Taormina a 6-hands 32

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work hands with a live performance. This work of art is exposed in the headquarters of the Mazzullo Foundation of Taormina and published on the photographic catalogue realized for the occasion. He is between the protagonists of ARTE SOLIDALE in Taormina, sponsored by the Municipality of Taormina and the Province of Messina. On 4 October 2009, the city of Taormina gives him the Special Plaque for Painting Art, IV National Prize “Teatro Antico Giovanni Cutrufelli”. Always in 2009, in Rome, one of his great work is auctioned in the charitable Asta di Solidarietà by Maurizio Costanzo. In 2010, he realizes a work for the collection Mille Artisti a Palazzo, exposed in Arese Borromeo’s Palace of Cesano Maderno (MI).

The 2010 is the year of two important events dedicated to the artist: the RED = Live exibition with a preface of Master TOGO who took place in the historic Sicilian Agatirio’s Art Gallery and, then, the institutional exibition LUMINARIE A VILLA GENOVESI with a preface of Patrizia Danzè, an event for which the artist realizes, asked by the Municipal Administration a big painting dedicated to the thirty-years anniversary of the Massacre of Bologna and whose art sketch is, in the meantime, used for the realization of a commemorative postcard (that during the vernissage has received the the cancellation by the Italian Post Office). His works, treated by Art Dealers across the country, are included in important public and private collections and auctioned by the main Italian Auction Houses.

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Senza Titolo Year: 2009 Mixed technique on canvas diptych Size: 40 x 60 cm

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...Monocromo? Year: 2009 Mixed techniques on masonite Size:Â 74 x 94 cm

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Re-Interpretando Bologna Year: 2009 Mixed techniques on canvas Size:Â 100 x 150 cm

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Sagoma in Italian Style Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size:Â 100 x 60 cm

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SagomE alla Moda Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 100 x 60 cm

TAG INDELEBILI KayOne

One of the first Italian writers, KayOne, born in 1972, began in 1988 at the age of 15 years old. A pioneer in Milan when the graffiti appeared only in the American TV series and when trends take five years to cross the ocean. Marco Mantovani, 39 years old, spends most of his time in the offices of the cultural Association Stradedarts, painting pictures and organizing events related to the world of street art and graffiti.

TAG INDELEBILI A PALETTE MADE OF ASPHALT by Francesca Porreca

The artistic life of KayOne is a path of contamination - between the street and the canvas, the spray and the making of acrylic color drops, the lettering and the graphic study, the instinctive component and the careful monitoring of the composition. For this reason it is fascinating having the opportunity to trace, in this exhibition, the evolution of the language of one of the most important Italian street artist, who has never denied his origins but, indeed, he was able to capitalize its expertise in graphics , advertising and in the more strictly artistic sector, creating works that have a great success in collecting and critics, galleries and institutions, finding their place into the contempo-

rary art system. In the approach to the canvas, the street remains for KayOne an extraordinary source of inspiration, not so much as a figurative reference, but rather as a ensemble of materials and meanings: colors are directly taken from the urban world (his black is obtained from the bitumen, the white from the pedestrian crossing paint) and the graffiti art (the spray is present as magmatic background color, as an essential element from which flows all the rest). The figurative details included as collages in the abstract composition are also interesting, such as pop citations that remember the advertising posters and experiments of the American artist Mimmo Rotella (in particular to combine paintings of Rauschenberg). The use of letters, cut out and pasted on the canvas, not painted, is certainly an original particular because it is a result

TAG INDELEBILI of the graffiti research on lettering of his name - style in which KayOne is a teacher, precise and creative - which involves the development of intricate and complex writings that evolve in the drawing to dissolve in wildstyle. The objective is to disseminate and make his own name recognizable as a specific brand style. It is the same KayOne to remind us that “the diffusion of his own nicknames is the starting point for every writer, learn to realize it with style is the conclusion.” It is almost superfluous to remark that the circulation of the name and the research of a recognizable style are fundamental elements of writing as much as in the more “traditional” art world. To find a style beyond the name is probably which marks the transition between being a writer and an artist. On the other hand, the presence of letters and inserts of collage denotes the union of the two souls of the creative path of KayOn , the street artist one and the one linked to graphics and advertising language. In both cases, the sense is, however, more than a mere linguistic meaning, as well as in the works on canvas, surfaces are characterized from the stratification and a synthetic and imaginative verve which, on one hand, look to free words of futurism and to the use of characteristic collage of cubist, dada and surrealist experiments and, on the other hand, to examples of the lettrisme of Alain Satie, which celebrate the aesthetic value of the alphabetic sign beyond its semantic meaning (his series Murs d’atelier d’artiste of 1974 is recognized as an extraordinary ancestor of the graffiti art that will invade New York a 42

few years later). For Satie and his companions, the letter must be understood as a new formal structure through which create an autonomous field of work, rich and inexhaustible. Nothing is more similar to urban graffiti! It has no to surprise the ability of KayOne to combine the charm of the street to the avant-gardes and the more innovative movements of the Twentieth century, since that these groups were the firts to face with the problem to flow – also in a direct way - life in art. The strength of the paintings of KayOne lies in the ability to draw the viewer into a world of sensations, emotions, meanings, whose explosive energy evokes the street without representing it. The artist’s relationship with matter is visceral, tending to emphasize the plasticity of the paint, its dynamic and tactile qualities, as well as visual, with the aim of

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finding a new dimension of meaning through comopositions of different materials and unusual associations. In this way, the art of KayOne seems to be able to converse with an unmediated reality, thanks to a dense and thick paint issued from varnishes, sands, asphalt dusts, spray, pigments, glazes, and then paper , wood, metal... hybrid techniques and materials, having a complex and stratified meaning, distinguished by an instinctive reference to the urban context that can transcend and expand the traditional painting dimension. In the works of KayOne the withdraw of reality is therefore minimal, but it is amplified from the strong gestural and material component of his painting, which is able to convey that sense of â&#x20AC;&#x153;roughnessâ&#x20AC;? that comes directly from contact with the street. The surfaces are never smooth, but as a result of an

excavation into the emotions, which leads to an in intense gestures - at the same time emotional and controlled - thanks to which sign and color are more trenchant. Energy and spontaneity are naturally derived from the experience of the writer, together with the speed, that in the street is given by the speed of the execution imposed by the situation, while on the canvas is realized in a more thoughtful way, in dynamic lines that follow themselves, intersect, overlap, light in bright spots. The control of balance and overlaps of signs and colors is very important, the whirling element is part of an almost hypnotic operation towards reality, that seems to leave traces in the fresh paint, ready to capture the moment like when it happens to trample, accidentally, the just redone white lines on the asphalt. 43

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Fear of the dark Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 80cm x 180cm

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Fear of the dark 2 Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 80cm x 180cm

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Punto di rottura (Left Side) Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size:Â 120 x 120 cm

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Punto di RotTura (Right Side) Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 120 x 120 cm

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Reattore Quattro Year: 2011 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 200 x 200 cm

TAG INDELEBILI Paul Kostabi

Best known for his angst-ridden, ferocious, expressionistic self-portraits, Paul Kostabi has also accumulated an impressive body of landscapes, still lifes, pure abstractions and several comically rapacious appropriations of various contemporary artists including Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Giles Lyon. The psychically ravaged self-portrait is his most constant theme, but any time Paul feels like it, he’ll bust out a mocking commentary of the pretentious scale and overblown egos of certain adored art stars, or he might sincerely explore the magical color possibilities of an otherworldly vase of flowers on a table. Paul Kostabi’s work is fraught

with careless care. He obviously loves painting, but is just as content to paint on low quality pre-gessoed student grade canvas as he is on the finest Belgium linen. He’s like a Mozart who won’t stop moving his fingers on any piano keys he sees -- you can pick up his body while his fingers keep moving and put him in front of a Hamburg Steinway or a broken toy piano and he will happily just keep on playing. Likewise, Paul will paint with equal passion for Mars Bar or MoMA, on torn cardboard or the best Arches watercolor paper. His only guide is the art spirit -- and even that he’ll subvert if he feels like it.

TAG INDELEBILI Recently, strange large words have appeared in his extremely layered work, like: “DARCO JOE ENA” and “CARE BAIP.” The meanings are ambiguous and seem personal. The use of words are yet another graphic device Paul has lifted from the Modernist painting tradition, first explored by Picasso and later by Stuart Davis, Ed Ruscha, Mimmo Rotella, Julian Schnabel and JeanMichel Basquiat. Paul’s use of color has become increasingly more decisive and subtle. In the early 1980s, when Paul first exhibited in New York’s Lower East Side, in galleries such as Casa Nada on Rivington Street, Paul’s colors were frequently more primary, acidic and seemingly reckless in the East Village spirit. Now, without losing any energy, his colors often have an almost romantic, autumnal harmony. And the complex layering of painterly stokes at times recalls the recent paintings of Terry Winters or the poster lacerations of Mimmo Rotella. With all these sophisticated art historical underpinnings, one senses

that many more discoveries are yet to be made. However, the present collection of diverse painterly achievements, which comprise Paul’s first one-person show in Italy, is already more than satisfying.

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scott Mahon & Wickers Mixed techniques on canvas

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UNTITLED Mixed techniques on canvas

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Take Us to Rivington Street Mixed techniques on canvas

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Untitled Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 102 x 76 cm

TAG INDELEBILI Mambo

Elvis Pregnolato

He graduated in 1993 at the Art School of Bologna. He obtained a degree in 1999 in “Master Painting” at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. He’s active as writer since 1989; he participates to many national conventions of writing (such as “Tinte Forti” (Bologna), “Panico Totale” (Pisa), “Cromatica” Vercelli) and international conventions (such as “Meeting of Style” in Padua from 2005 to 2008). He is a founder, in 1994, of the artistic group “Zero”, with other three artists; with them he plans and realizes a lot of events, exhibitions, artistic/musical performances in Bologna, Milan, Belluno, Modena, Ri56

mini, Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna, Verona till 2003. Together with the Zero he prepares the theatrical productions for the “Link” of Bologna from 1995 to 2000. He is a founder, in 2000, of the “Opus Magistri” Association with which he realizes, together with its members, between 2000 and 2003, five large murals for the city of Bologna and one for the city of Vignola (Modena). He promotes the Aerosol Culture organizing, with Opus Magistri, some writing conventions (“Work in Progress”), he collaborates with organizations of some secondary schools of Bologna, giving theoretical and practical lessons of painting and graffiti writing.From 1995 he paints and creates scenographies and sculputal elements for fairs, shops and private people. He lives and works in his home/studio in Fagnano, in the province of Bologna.

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Breaker’s Danse Macabre Year: 2011 Spray painting and acrylic on steel Size: 100 x 40 cm

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Rapper’s Danse Macabre Year: 2011 Spray painting and acrylic on steel Size: 100 x 40 cm

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Skater’s Danse Macabre Year: 2011 Spray painting and acrylic on steel Size: 100 x 40 cm

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Writer’s Danse Macabre Year: 2011 Spray painting and acrylic on steel Size: 100 x 40 cm

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XII Year: 2011 Spray painting and acrylic on steel Size: 120 x 50 cm

TAG INDELEBILI UNIKPRODUkT

Street art for unmapped streets.

>> Lessons learned underground. It’s quite nice being underground at this time of year; the rabbits are updating their Big Map and discovering a lot of strange and interesting things in the process. I usually try to help out where I can, but because of the language barrier it can be quite frustrating. After a while spent tripping over teams of scurrying rabbits, accidentally block-

ing tunnels and knocking over important equipment I decided to give up my attempts at assistance and just go for a wander on my own. Happily I found that once I stopped trying to help all the confusion died down and I actually became useful. The rabbits started to follow me, pointing me in the direction of doors they needed assistance in shoving open. They gathered around me in the darkest sections where lights wouldn’t work and where there were terrifying noises. We made quick progress and passed quickly into the non-disclosure zone, which I can’t really talk about at the moment, at least until the proper paperwork has come through. We didn’t

TAG INDELEBILI >> I want to be a refuse and recycling operative. see any monsters though, I can reveal that much. I learned a lot underground and I fully intend to apply this knowledge. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing. Today I have spent a lot of time just roaming about. I had some paintings to post and then I thought I would look for some materials. There seem to be certain places that are magnets for rubbish, sometimes there are nice scraps of wood or metal. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what I am looking for until I see it. I ended up stumbling upon a strange thing. A huge sack of polystyrene packing chips had been burst and scattered,

and there were about five fire extinguishers of various sizes and types positioned almost deliberately around the area. I really dislike explaining things away by the simple option. I totally hate that Occam geezer. Where is the fun in that? Anyway. I spent a lot of time wandering around and not so much time working out what I was going to write tonight. I still came through with something. I promised myself I would. And today I did discover some mysterious and interesting ideas which will come out shortly. >> I investigate programmatic animation. I chop a bit off my finger! I began doing some animation tests to-

TAG INDELEBILI day! I’m going to start out with news reports from the Land of the Dead. It’s a simple subject to animate, a great opportunity to make a whole series of them for practice and a kooky vehicle for the literary side of what I want to do. So, being a real madman, I have start-

ed writing some software which takes various cut up bits of the characters (eyes, mouths etc) and animates them programatically based on a script. I dig this a great deal; it’s geeky as hell and will mean that once the structure is in place I can bash out episodes by just writing the script. Anyway, after cutting my characters up on the computer into eyes and mouths and hands, I almost did the same to myself. I was cutting out a whole lot of carboard creatures for a street piece I’m working on when I managed to slice a nice chunk off my little finger. Ouch. Thank you all for commenting and sharing my previous post on Facebook; you rock a significant amount. I’ll write again tomorrow with pictures of the finished street piece and more… >> I slack off on my art. I am frightened. My work explores the Land of the Dead. I can’t directly explain what the Land of the Dead is, so I do it through art

(and soon with animation, short stories and maybe even a podcast). It is scary work; for years I have always backed off and took a break from working when it all got too frightening, but I honestly can’t stand letting things continue like this. I have devised a basic yet cunning method to break through this problem. I have made a commitment to post to this site every day. Seems simple? It is, but this is what it means: I must keep working, coming up with ideas and improving my writing skills in order to keep up; all the while forcing myself past the fear and the urge to quit. See how cunning this plan is? Your encouragement in all this is highly appreciated; from now on I’ll be showing my grattitude with loads of free stuff available online, as well as gifts of art to those who take an interest and get enjoyment from what I do.

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Continuing Ink, paint, collage wrapped on a handmade wooden frame. Size:Â 39 x 25 cm It never seems to end.

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AllieS Ink, paint, collage wrapped on a handmade wooden frame. Size:Â 30 x 20 cm A citizen will accept support from wherever he can find it.

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Translation Ink, paint, collage on 12â&#x20AC;? vinyl record. The painting is signed, dated and titled on the reverse. Some beings cYeart communicate in the regular way.

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Televisions Ink, paint, collage on 12â&#x20AC;? vinyl record. The painting is signed, dated and titled on the reverse. The televisions do not work properly any more; they are dangerous and unpredictable.

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Containment Ink, paint, collage on 12â&#x20AC;? vinyl record. The painting is signed, dated and titled on the reverse. There are things in the Land of the Dead that should never be released.

TAG INDELEBILI Verbo

Born in 1977, Mitja “Verbo” Bombardieri is a versatile artist whose interests range from painting to the electronic avantgarde. His particular abilities in all the visual arts led him to mature rapidly in the European graffiti-writing movement in which his work resulted in his being invited to work with the historic PDB crew and being asked to participate in international exhibitions. The main message of Bombardieri’s paintings is the “cerebration of style”, which is both automatically the emotional conduit for his contempory life and the shiny dream aesthetic that found its first ex p r e s s i o n in that generation which

grew up under a televisual bombardment of cartoons and video games, and which finds its collocation between broadcast mass media communications and city streets. His study of his personal mode of communication has changed it over time into dynamic and plastic forms that take on the structure of armour that protects the soul of an innocent letter, just as a child does, writing in his spelling book: they are true external skeletons of biomechanical insects that fight daily to survive in the urban ecosystem, visually contaminating it. Through the actions of a writer, Verbo willingly celebrates the sense that these beings represent the ferment of a spontaneous subculture that spreads beyond

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the social superstructure, bringing to the surface new, fresh and unexpected aesthetic forms, just as bees bring pollen to flowers. In addition to using the painting techniques that are typical of graffiti culture, Verbo has introduced new visual rules thanks to his use of the computer, projectors and FLxER, a computer program that he has co-developed. He takes the electronic instruments out of the spaces in which he usually exhibits as a visual artist and on to the street where his “Video Raids” find a more congenial “back to the street” public where everything is spoken about without distinction and, turning on the luminous signals in the dark of the night, a location is transformed into an essential part of the visual performance

We can therefore speak about the spreading of the Word, a non-random play on words and letters.This is the starting point for a “mass literacy project”, choosing to work with the art market and presenting a particular study of his calligraphy that certainly celebrates his style while at the same time marking the relationship between the writer and his social context, a fundamental symbiosis for the essence of this form of expression. It follows that the choice of working on printing plates, symbols of mass communications, represents not only crossing and committing to the urban context in order to be seen, but also to crossing the publicity appearance that is in perfect tune with the act of writing itself: the act and the context, or the style that celebrates the contemporary.

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TdiTekno freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size: 94x68cm

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RdiReddito freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size: 94x68cm

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MdiMasterplan freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size:Â 94x68cm

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AdiAnarchy freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size: 94x68cm

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EdiRibelle freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size:Â 94x68cm

TAG INDELEBILI MR.Wany

Andrea Sergio was born in Brindisi in 1978. He began his artistic career with graffiti just 12 years, in 1990, is already known as Mr.Wany, the pseudonym whose signature graffiti on the walls of his city. He graduated from the Art School “Edgardo Simone” Brindisi and then specialized with honors at the “International School of Comics” in Rome. In 2000 he moved to Bologna where he was hired as Art Director from Dynit, one of the largest publish-

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ers of Japanese cartoons and comics. Over the years he worked as a decorator, designer, cartoonist, illustrator, commercial artist, designer, art director, designer, screen printer and creative producer of the parentheses music / talent scout, publishing self-produced and professional dancer until landing at the painting. In 20 years of graffiti achieves many goals, how to win contests regional, national and international, to be invited as a juror because one of the greatest representatives of hip hop culture in Italy in Writing, painting in meeting writing in Italy, from Sicily to Piedmont ; teaches as a professor of this culture in universities and specialized courses in private schools. Produce art work and projects for Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola, D & G, Casio, Timberland, Volkswagen,

MTV, Mediaset, Avis, Toei Animation Japan, Reebok, Eastpack, Rai Sat Smash, Sky. He is interviewed by newspapers, TV and radio in Italy and abroad who are interested in her artistic work, as well as published books, catalogs and DVDs. In 2005, his reputation abroad explodes when he was invited to numerous meetings and exhibitions in Croatia, Germany, England, Belgium, Denmark, Romania, Greece, Holland, Austria, Spain, France, Bosnia, Switzerland, USA, Brazil, Argentina , New Zealand, Equador and Russia. The curiosity and the creative personality led him to experiment with different techniques and media, in this way approaches the canvas with the baggage of artistic writing, comics, graphic design and illustration. Log into the circuit so that the most innovative art 79

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academically, participating in important solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in Italy and abroad. How to “Street Art Sweet Art” exhibition commissioned by Vittorio Sgarbi and Alessandro Riva, at the PAC in Milan, or the MAC (Museum of Contemporary Art) in San Paulo in Brazil and in major European capitals like London or Paris. So in 2007 he signed a contract with a gallery in which works for about a Year that will bring him to live in Milan. After this interlude his works are highly sought after and began to operate autonomously with galleries and museums around the world. He writes the critic Mark Meneguzzo: “Mr.Wany postatomico elaborates a scenario, often populated by a human mixed (races and metals), where the East becomes the physiognomic East amazing manga. It is the revival of exoticism mysterious as it may make in a world where there are no more “exotic places”. The art critic Vittorio Sgarbi chooses to unknowingly graffiti Mr.Wany Leon as his favorite horse, then later heal some of his exhibitions, presenting it as one of the most representative artists of this movement. His painting was born from the underground writing, the passion-former profession of the Japanese cartoon graphics and the latest techniques, from the

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volcanic creative personality. Leaps to the eye the originality of his research and experimentation of colors, using varied methods and techniques, creating unexpected synthesis and fluid leakage between color, tags, or encrypted, and written thoughts stylized drawings fantastic, surreal, dreamlike. The reality is filtered and interpreted through a sensibility that is aware of the existential problems of humanity today, the neuroses, the mechanisms of frenzy and isolation contemporaries, the artist responds by inventing a new world they live in symbols and characters, a world stressed, deformed, deconstructed, in which he “dissected” from the support wall of his subjects, by dragging them onto canvas or turn-

ing them into toys and installations. That’s how come, therefore, to “resurrect” even lifeless objects, fragments of the road as mattresses, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, recovering landfill and making them angels, dolls Fellini, some animals ‘a little soft’ cynical, sensual and sexual references. Even his art reflects this pictorial symbols Apollonian-Dionysian, so close to calling the child “puppet” and insert references to evil, or at times gruesome, like skulls, blood, human brains. But everything is done with great irony, the play of thoughts that resizes the reality and experience new horizons, and that is how his art is floating in the universe of the most dynamic contemporary languages.

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Pianta Digitale Mixed techniques on digital print Year: 2009 Size:Â 100 x 70 cm

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Pensieri sincopati Polish and spray on canvas Year: 2010 Size:Â 100 x 70 cm

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We need of coffee mixed techniques on wood Year: 2010 Size: 44 x35 x 38 cm

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“God’s Blaster” freestyle on metal slabs Year: 2012 Size: 68 x 42 x 25 cm

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Privé Mixed techniques on canvas. Year: 2009 Size: 50 x 50 cm

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Kaotico Equilibrio Mixed techniques on canvas. Year: 2009 Size: 50 x 50 cm

TAG INDELEBILI Flick Yoli

Self-taught, Flick Yoli, deals with materials as a matter of aptness in approaching forms, which in all hopes bring him to the most telling bliss of bare existence. A habitual outsider, Flick Yoli uses a primary lexicon of wear and tear aesthetics that in all likelihood were first revealed to him as an actual silhouette of humanity as seen from the crib. Early on, he remembers thinking that the art lessons of those who appeared

insane could lead to enhanced reason, or even maybe, to special powers. The respect for the behaviors of the insane which he noted in various cultures led him to adopt the panic narrative modality. He also explored this for intuitive market survival purposes.

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Vernacular art with a twinge of futuristic regret. Thank You, Dubuffet! Ah, to live like millionaire eccentrics malingering in fake mental illness, on the palm lined streets amidst the pidgeons, and wearing a bathrobe on the streets - and perhaps even a motheaten beret. Thank God Art Brut is everywhere, for such raw art neednâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be good nor beautiful, nor intentional. It only needs your eye to be. Thank you, Dubuffet, you have given us this way of seeing art with new, fresh eyes despite the clamorous insinuation of those who seek to to turn its producers into loonies.

Art Brut, for me, is befriending the limitations of materials and by sometimes hobbling the application of mediums. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about allowing material to be itself, but to become more than itself - redeemed, in fact. It also allows one, abiding by a unique phenomena, to reveal through subconscious projection onto surfaces, images of the mind unregulated by habits of signature. Above all, Art Brut is unfettered expression. Whether its documents are successful in finding admirers, or not, Art Brut is always a success as a process. Flick Yoli

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Morning sun Year: 2009 Mixed techniques

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Sacrifical Lamb Year: 2009 Mixed techniques

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CCCP Year: 2009 Mixed techniques

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Bikers Dozen Year: 2009 Mixed techniques

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SiLK Neck wear Year: 2009 Mixed techniques

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Post Graffiti in ItaliY & USA

TMNK “Spazio Ratti-Lanvin” 15, via Clavature, Bologna

from 21 January to 14 February 2012

TAG INDELEBILI TMNK

THE ME NOBODY KNOWS

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TMNK is truly an artist whose creative abilities defy labels. He began his career as a fashion photographer, where he found himself in Paris photographing the designers collections for Essence Magazine. he has received national recognition for his digital editorial illustrations. More content with making art than making a name for himself, TMNK exhibits his poignant, provocative and bold, art under the moniker “THE ME NOBODY KNOWS (TMNK).” The artist likes to refer to his unique paintings as urban hieroglyphics. Constructing, assembling, deconstructing, painting, and scratching on any surface he can find, his paintings are modern-day cave drawings, offering refelctions, observations, and discussions that the viewer is invited to join.

even other artist! Well known raw artist Gus Fink had this to say: “I think your one of greatest out there.” “I really think you’re work is superb. It’s brilliant. . .I can’t believe how wonderful your work is. . . . A little bit of Warhol, Basquiat, Picasso and you of course.” - Art In America If you’re looking for a contemporary artist to add to your collection keep your eye on TMNK (The Me Nobody Knows). “As an artist you’re nobody, until somebody buys your work. Yet, I hope I have created something that somehow connects with you. Thanks for making this “Nobody” feel like a somebody. Your support and encouragement is sincerely appreciated.”

The artist currently resides in New TMNK’s work has drawn the atten- York, New York. tion of curators, collectors - And

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I Ain’t Tina Year: 2008 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 90 x 60 cm

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Sharing tears Year: 2008 Mixed techniques on canvas Size: 30 x 25 cm

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Spray Man Year: 2008 Mixed techniques on canvas Size:Â 90 x 60 cm in collaboration with AVONE

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President Year: 2008 Mixed techniques on tablet Size:Â 10 x 20 cm

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All need a Hand sometimes Year: 2008 Mixed techniques on tablet Size:Â 10 x 20 cm

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Post Graffiti in ItaliY & USA

TIW

Top Italian Writers

Arcadia Concept Art Store via San Vitale 22, Bologna

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Pingos 02 - Ari Size: 100 x 100 cm

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La Hardcore - RaptUz Size: 100 x 100 cm

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Bronx Bull - Anonimo Scultura in legno Size:Â 95 x 95 cm

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Do The Right Wall - Anonimo Size: 180 x 120 cm

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BattLE FIELD - flyCat Year: 2010 Size: 100 x 150 cm

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Genialità Ritratta - Falanga Year: 2009 Smalto su tela Size: 100 x 150 cm

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Rusty Cleo - MambO

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Credits

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Coordinamento Tecnico Esposizione................................Jacob Kovo Graphic Designer ......................................................... Marlon Saglia Webmaster .................................................................. Matteo Magni Editor Supervisor.................................................. Elisabetta Facchini

For contacts and further information contact: Consorzio FIA, Fabbrica di Idee ed Azioni

Blocco 1B Galleria B, 159/161 40050 Funo (BO) Tel. +39 051863192 Fax +39 051862045 Email: info@consorziofia.it Web: www.consorziofia.it