El Pintor Con Las Letras
September 2, 2011 11:43 AM Subscribe
Throughout the world, El Mac's grand spraypaint portraits combine with RETNA's cryptic, hieroglyphic language to create stunning murals.
In Toronto they fine you if you don't clean that off right? Amazing BTW
posted by mrgroweler at 12:00 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by mrgroweler at 12:00 PM on September 2, 2011
No, there are murals in Toronto. There was one painted in a park off Sorauren Ave dedicated to the late Holly Jones. It's nice, but not the level of the artist linked in the OP.
posted by GuyZero at 12:03 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by GuyZero at 12:03 PM on September 2, 2011
When buildings are painted like this, does it prevent taggers from defacing any part of the mural? Is there some sort of honor code about not messing with someone else's work?
I see a lot of buildings around my area with some awful tagging, but there are a couple with really beautiful "graffiti" that seem to remain untouched for years.
posted by CancerMan at 12:06 PM on September 2, 2011
I see a lot of buildings around my area with some awful tagging, but there are a couple with really beautiful "graffiti" that seem to remain untouched for years.
posted by CancerMan at 12:06 PM on September 2, 2011
Lovely.
And yeah I think there's a kind of street code of not painting over something unless you can do better..which should ensure these stand untouched for at least a hundred years.
posted by chronkite at 12:20 PM on September 2, 2011
And yeah I think there's a kind of street code of not painting over something unless you can do better..which should ensure these stand untouched for at least a hundred years.
posted by chronkite at 12:20 PM on September 2, 2011
"When buildings are painted like this, does it prevent taggers from defacing any part of the mural? Is there some sort of honor code about not messing with someone else's work?"
It does and it doesn't.
These guys are pretty well-respected in the LA graf art community, and work with other folks like REVOK and SABER, and there's generally a sense within that community that you only go over another guy's work if you can make something better. So, that these guys are known (and not just locally, I mean, Christ, The Economist wrote about RETNA) protects them from a lot of the midlevel throw-ups that might otherwise encroach.
It doesn't protect them from gang graf or low-level taggers, who often go over the ones in my neighborhood, but they get restored pretty quickly, though I don't know whether it's property owners or the artists themselves. But even those folks are more likely to go near the work than right over it.
posted by klangklangston at 12:23 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
It does and it doesn't.
These guys are pretty well-respected in the LA graf art community, and work with other folks like REVOK and SABER, and there's generally a sense within that community that you only go over another guy's work if you can make something better. So, that these guys are known (and not just locally, I mean, Christ, The Economist wrote about RETNA) protects them from a lot of the midlevel throw-ups that might otherwise encroach.
It doesn't protect them from gang graf or low-level taggers, who often go over the ones in my neighborhood, but they get restored pretty quickly, though I don't know whether it's property owners or the artists themselves. But even those folks are more likely to go near the work than right over it.
posted by klangklangston at 12:23 PM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
klang, flagged as awesome. RETNA'S stuff is totally mind-blowing and ties in with the recent rammellzee kick i have been on. thx.
posted by beefetish at 1:11 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by beefetish at 1:11 PM on September 2, 2011
These are really beautiful. Thanks for posting.
I must say they are the most photorealistic artforms I've seen on the graffiti canvas, i.e. urban walls. Can anyone point to graffiti with a similar style?
posted by stroke_count at 2:39 PM on September 2, 2011
I must say they are the most photorealistic artforms I've seen on the graffiti canvas, i.e. urban walls. Can anyone point to graffiti with a similar style?
posted by stroke_count at 2:39 PM on September 2, 2011
I love El Mac's Thelonious Monk, as well as these doors.
We have a few here in Miami, although unfortunately I believe this one got painted over by a Hello Kitty pop-up store during Art Basel last year. I'm still sad about that.
posted by 6and12 at 4:24 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
We have a few here in Miami, although unfortunately I believe this one got painted over by a Hello Kitty pop-up store during Art Basel last year. I'm still sad about that.
posted by 6and12 at 4:24 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh man. I love the lettering. (Or should it be in scare quotes: "lettering"?) Right on the edge between elegant and scribbly.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:31 AM on September 3, 2011
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:31 AM on September 3, 2011
Rammellzee has a surprisingly decent webpage (the Gothic Futurism one). My girlfriend and I saw his stuff at the recent LAMOCA street art exhibit, and it honestly made me think of schizophrenia and the developing of secret codes that happens with that; his sculptures were something that I would have written off if they didn't have them in this weird blacklight room. Really naive, outsider stuff. I don't know much of his graf work, and his paintings weren't anything that grabbed me.
But I gotta say, I love his crazy-ass costumes and he was a pretty tight MC. Just, you know, crazy as a shithouse bird.
posted by klangklangston at 10:12 AM on September 3, 2011
But I gotta say, I love his crazy-ass costumes and he was a pretty tight MC. Just, you know, crazy as a shithouse bird.
posted by klangklangston at 10:12 AM on September 3, 2011
When buildings are painted like this, does it prevent taggers from defacing any part of the mural? Is there some sort of honor code about not messing with someone else's work?
This is covered quite well in the excellent 1983 Graffiti documentary Style Wars.
posted by billyfleetwood at 11:50 AM on September 3, 2011
This is covered quite well in the excellent 1983 Graffiti documentary Style Wars.
posted by billyfleetwood at 11:50 AM on September 3, 2011
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posted by benito.strauss at 11:55 AM on September 2, 2011