Today we bring you a new artistic concept which have not been seen anywhere else in the world. The national graffiti league is the first competition of its kind, where Spanish wall murals’ artists battle for the 1st position!
The season takes from 26th June to 15th October. Artists have 5 months to submit their artworks, which have to be uploaded in a weekly base. Moreover, the refereeing process is developed by both the general audience on social media (Facebook & Instagram) and a jury which punctuates originality, murals’ quality and the techniques employed.
If the painting is fresh, artists automatically receive 5 points per week and the jury will offer from 1 to 15 points extra. As you will observe in the following article, artworks divide in two categories:
Who are some of the most talented artists in the Spanish wall murals’ community?
Similarly to what happens in many other European countries, the wall murals featured in this event have an enormous quality. Artists from all Spanish regions present their artworks in different sizes and most of them develop a career either as muralists or tattoo artists.
Their high skills also took some of them internationally and several graffiti & street art festivals count with their participation in a commissioned base. It’s frequent to see them advertised in Google as these artists offer ‘professional graffiti services’ in the regions/cities where they live.
Let’s pay attention to the artists who are leading this year’s competition. So far, only two months have passed by and we’ve observed amazing artist representations. Have you ever seen such surrealism in our country together at the same time?
1-. Dadospuntocero
David Esteban, also known as Da2, is a muralist from León. He is another example of how a hobby turned into a job. Furthermore, his most repeated hashtag on Instagram is #comomelasgozopintando (how much I do enjoy painting). In other words, the clearest example of how artists paint with passion.
His style is hyperrealistic, and it’s common to see him using cherry pickers or scissor lifts. What we could observe at this image created in Lugones (Asturias) last month of July 2020 is a child named Adri, growing up & recycling.
According to the artists’ words recycling does not only consist on introducing our plastic garbage in the yellow container. We could take advantage of it and teach our children, with little creativity, the importance of taking care of our planet. Together we could create life in different forms.
2-. Lalone
Eduardo Luque aka Lalone is a graffiti muralist from Málaga (Andalucía), who started painting in 1998. From that time up until 2008 he worked as a graphic designer and illustrator, as well as studied Fine Arts in San Telmo Art’s Academy.
He currently works as a freelance artist for several city councils and art gallery owners within the autonomous community. Lalone loves painting in large formats with a high resolution finishing touch.
This image is a portrait picture by Lagoon film studio, in which you will observe a human being sharing space with the wild nature in a living room. Wouldn’t you love to have that room wall painting at home?
3-. Konestilo
Víctor Romero Toscano is a self taught graffiti writer and urban artist from Huelva. While painting he has a clear goal, that people turn around to check his artworks. Moreover, his alias is Konestilo, which English language translation would be “With style”.
He has not only participated at local or national events, but also at internationally renowned meetings such as:
- ‘Upfest’ in Bristol (UK),
- ‘La Nuit des Temps’ in Paris (FR),
- ‘Cucina Art’ in Rome (IT)
The above image was painted last 22nd June and it clearly shows respect to all workers related to the public Spanish health system. The background was developed with roll ups and wet paint, while the shading was created with different green colored spray cans.
4-. Dridali
Adrián Mateo known artistically as Dridali, is an urban artist born in 1995 in the city of Valencia, Spain. His work focuses on creating faces of people with a hyper-realistic style, mainly using the spray technique.
However, he does works with different themes and scopes, thus demonstrating versatility and multiple functionality. He believes in art as a powerful tool for social inclusion, always bringing to debate the importance of art not as a discipline, but as something vital.
Dridali is also a resident tattoo artist at Matata Ink Studio, and the featured image belongs to the first time he participated at an international street art festival in #SousPression10, Poitiers (France).
5-. Moxaico
Daniel Fernández is both a graffiti writer and professional artist from Almeria. He signs as ‘Coma’ when working in the former industry, whereas ‘Moxaico’ is the name given to the latter project through his freelance career.
Due to his background on graphic design, Moxaico creates hiperrealistic artworks both as a solo artist and through associative collabs. In the same vein, he has won several awards in his province since 2006.
The above illustration is entitled “Lockdown” and was painted in Vícar Pueblo (Almeria) during the second week of August 2020. It represents a young child who dreams about the park’s playground. As you may have experienced, kids were also restricted from going to the streets while Covid-19.
6-. Goyo203
Los Alcázares (Murcia) is not only known because of Mar Menor, Europe’s biggest salt water lagoon, but also because of an artist who creates amazing wall murals. He goes by the name of Goyo203 and his skills are massive!
This kids’ canvas wasn’t painted for a private proprietorship but for the general audience at Playa de las Villas in Torre de la Horadada (Alicante). As you may observe, these kind of wall murals have such quality that could perfectly belong to a modern art museum.
Wall murals with a graffiti style representation.
One of the biggest challenges that exist in the modern art industry is differentiating between wall murals and graffiti. While the first group does it with an aesthetic purpose, writers do it for the community. Have you ever heard about their codes, styles, techniques and goals?
There exists a whole process before painting graffiti letters, figures and characters. What’s more, the Spanish graffiti movement observes as writers are sometimes treated as vandals. Would you agree with this statement?
Today’s article will serve as a clear message to those who still think that graffiti just deteriorates wall murals. Here are some of the best contemporary art artists in our country:
7-. Rudiart
We first met him at MOS, the Meeting of Styles which took place in Chamartin railway station (Madrid) last 2019. Rudi Hernandez is one of the most talented graffiti writers that we have ever met in our country. His style, forms, shades and colors could be part of any modern art gallery around the world.
Apart from that, Rudi is a hip hop and reggae events’ promoter. As some people will know, there exists a close connection between those two industries and graffiti. Doesn’t it? Have you ever attended a music festival in which there was a specific assigned area towards contemporary art?
8-. Chinograf
Chino is a versatile writer from Llerena (Badajoz). He belongs to TCK crew, which acronym stands for ‘The Crime Kings’. At this stage of his life, he does not only focus on letters, but also in hyperrealism.
Chinograff started it as a hobby and observes the movement as freedom. According to his words, “being in front of wall murals with your music and friends is something that cannot be explained”.
Cooltourspain’s opinion about the wall murals
As we have stated in previous blog posts, Cooltourspain team members believe that each city in our country should count with wall murals where writers and artists had the freedom to paint without taking care of police or other administrative authorities.
We are photographers, writers, artists, guides and professionals directly related to the graffiti and street art movements. We believe that if city majors would allow our petition, there could be less vandalism but more beauty in the streets.
Would you help us sign our petition on change.org to officialy decorate our neighborhood’s walls with graffiti?
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