Argentine Street Art

As if it was some kind of "welcome home" party, two days after my arrival to Buenos Aires, I found out that at the "Palais de Glace" there was an exhibition dedicated to the local street art.

Named “Ficus Repens”, -known in English as the climbing or the creeping fig-, the name plays with the popular name for that plant in Argentina, where is usually called “the wall lover”.

The expo was just amazing. Huge panels were decorated by graffiti and street artists, in the same chaotic way that streets are and because most of the authors had some of their art in the city, the show included pictures of that work.

Stencil mixed with graffiti, plus comic style drawings and flyers, covered some of the panels. While at first they seemed like a huge scribble, the beauty was in the details. God was sharing space with the Devil and Dolce & Gabbana was renamed Bolche & Gabbana (Bolche is how we commonly nickname the Bolsheviks). Love, hate, sex, innocence, all the human basics were there.

These are pictures of the panels:

Comic Style I

Fashion
Grim Reaper
Graffiti
Bolche (as per "Bolsheviks) and Gabbana
Comic Style II


Then, in a picture gallery, we were able to appreciate the work of the same artists in its "natural environment", the streets of Buenos Aires:











A short biography of the artists was also available. Most of them graphic designers (or skaters), this is the complete list of participants: Abre, Bera, Bosque, Bs.As.Stncl, Cabaio, Cabe, Cam Bs As, Chu, Croki, Cucusita, Dani Dan, Dano, Dardo Malatesta, Defi, El Feder, Emm, Ever, Grothesque, Gualicho, Jaz, Kidgaucho, Mart, Mau, Nasa, Nazza Stencil, Nerf, Pmp, Poeta, Pony, Pum Pum, Rdw, Saga, Semsei, Shonis, Sonni, Suba, Sur, Teko, Torpe, Triangulo Dorado, Valentina B., Yorke.

Of course I have more pictures of the expo, so if you are into street art, just visit the whole collection at Flickr. There are almost 100 pictures there and I will probably be adding more, little by little...