It’s a new adventure, this street art, for the Canadian illustrator Gary Taxali.

After licensing his images to everything from handkerchiefs to coins to vinyl toys, Gary Taxali is back to the basics here in Stavanger for the Nice Surprise Festival. With the guidance and expertise of the famed and respected Norwegian street artist Pøbel, who has quite a fervent fan base of his own, Taxali has been able to put his work up on walls here and appears to be enjoying it. Favoring the retro found-this-in-the-attic aesthetic that he has established in editorial and commercial illustrations, Taxali’s one-color stencils look best here in this Nordic town on walls that have seen better days, or at least ones that sport imperfections.

His hand-cut aesthetics boast an instant clarity, yet the intention concealed within his work sometimes defies simplification – a characteristic that boldly situates these latest creations within the enigmatic realm of contemporary street stencil art established by hundreds of street artists over the last decades. On the windy streets of Stavanger, Taxali appears to have charted a bold new course, one that navigates the intricate waters of this often cryptic, sometimes activist, and frequently satirical urban discipline.

As he says, “Why not?”

Read our first article on Mr. Taxali’s participation at Nice Surprise Festival HERE.

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