All posts tagged: Fernando Alcalá Losa

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro Paint “Carmencita” Tilted at 90 Degrees

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro Paint “Carmencita” Tilted at 90 Degrees

May 15, 2017

The tea brand. The nightclub. The paella.

The dancer known as the “Pearl of Seville.”

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Carmencita is a name synonymous with the florid, proud and fanciful folklore of Spain expressed through the image of a colorful dancer. Castenets please! Flowers tossed at her feet, swirling skirt dizzying and brilliant.

While the famous dancer named Carmecita whom most Spaniards are familiar with was born in 1868 and was painted by John Singer Sargent (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and William Merrit Chase (The Met, New York) among other notable painters, her image is less that of a person than of an archetype for mural painters Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro, who were both born in the mid 1990s.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Their new collaboration on a long wall in Sant Feliú is an opportunity to paint an image on the street that is impressionist and classical, and then to almost turn it on its head.

“Neither of us know the figure in the foreground, and it does not really matter except to know that she was connected to the world of entertainment and that the public admired her,” they tell us.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

The image is compelling, ebullient and a bit of a mystery – even more so as it has been rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise along the sidewalk of this busy street.

“We decided to represent the figure horizontally because it is a perspective to which we are not accustomed and it is shocking,” they say.

Clearly it is an unusual presentation and interpretation of the image of Carmencita and perhaps it is a furtherance of the concept of a street “intervention”.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro created this painting in conjunction with Contorno Urbano, 12+1 of Sant Feliú, organized in part with Kaligrafics.

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AXE Colours – Two Graffiti Friends, Now Creative Partners

AXE Colours – Two Graffiti Friends, Now Creative Partners

May 13, 2017

Sometimes you can parlay your graffiti and Street Art practice into a career that sustains you, and many artists work hard to find opportunities that assure that they can continue to be creative. Friends since childhood and painting graffiti and murals together since 1999 in Barcelona, Adrià (Smaug) and Oriol (Gúma) together call themselves AXE Colours.

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Both are interested in architecture and design and plastic arts and have done a number of commercial projects together including recently a long tunnel inside the stadium complex for the footballers del Camp Nou del Futbol Club in the city.

While Oriol practices as an architect in London and Hong Kong, Adrià is fully dedicated to AXE COLORS personally and commercially and he is currently painting a series of portraits of TV personalities and sports figures. Here’s a recent painting of TV horse racing jockey Tommy Shelby and his horse for the 12 + 1 Project – with photos by Fernando Alcalá Losa.

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

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“Liberate the Child Within” Roc Blackblock for 12 + 1 in Barcelona

“Liberate the Child Within” Roc Blackblock for 12 + 1 in Barcelona

February 13, 2017

Free your mind, and the rest will follow.

Not only is it a lyric from a 90s pop song, it is a truth that people learn everyday to liberate themselves from attitudes and world views that they’ve accepted but now want to let go of.

Roc Blackblock. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

Catalan Street Artist Roc Blackblock creates a cage around the head and shoulders of his protagonist for the Project 12+1 in Barcelona. He calls it “Llibera l’infant que portes dins!”, which translates as “Liberate the Child Within”.

It makes sense because many adults stopped being creative or expressing their creativity after childhood – bowing to messages from schools, parents, even religious institutions. At some point we don’t even trust our abilities to be creative anymore.

Roc Blackblock. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

But Roc says you can get back there.

“It’s an invitation to reconnect with the aspects of ourselves that adult life and social pressures have repressed and dulled; spontaneity, creativity, fantasy, and imagination,” he says.

It’s worth a try, right?

Roc Blackblock. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Roc Blackblock. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

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A Wall a Month : Contorno Urbano Launches “12+1” for 2017

A Wall a Month : Contorno Urbano Launches “12+1” for 2017

February 2, 2017

Walls get buffed all the time in many cities as the municipal anti-graffiti campaigns scour the streetscape for unapproved aerosol missives and get out the bucket paint or bring by the power washer.

Irene López León. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

In one Spanish city they are doing it once a month, regardless of what’s up there. At least on one wall.

The second edition of “12 +1” by a small nonprofit organization named Contorno Urbano has planned for one new artist every month to paint this wall. The nonprofit says they are composed of local artists, a social worker and an architect – all in the city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a municipality of a quarter million people to the immediate southwest of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain – has been planning and executing murals for over a decade.

Irene López León. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

With a rotating roster beginning this month, the organization says it is “in an open-air art gallery” in a commercial district of the city. In a description of the event they say it “seeks to question the way we exhibit street art, and the place of these artworks in the city.”

January brought Irene López León and today we show you her new piece that incorporates elements of geometry, playing with perspective, organic elements, and a certain hypnotic quality.

Planned artists for 2017 are Iker Muro, Hosh, Miedo 12, Miquel Wert, Pati Baztán, Elbi Elem, Fernando León, Edjinn, BYG and Laura González Llaneli.

 

Irene López León. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Irene López León. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

 

For more information about Contorno Urbano please click HERE.

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Fernando Alcalá Losa : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

Fernando Alcalá Losa : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 15, 2016

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As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Fernando Alcalá Losa is a talented photographer from Barcelona who has been shooting artists as they create their work on the street for some time. His momentary glimpses into an artists world, or of our world from their viewpoint, are a poignant gift that Fernando captures in a way that few other photographers can.

L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Barcelona, Spain.
Date: September, 2016.
Photograph by Fernando Alcalá Losa

How important is it to show street art pieces when you are taking pics of street art? Of course, it’s important. All of us love it, don’t we?

But after years of hitting the streets, lots of walking, climbing walls, being on rooftops and sneaking into other people’s houses in order to get the best possible shot of the final result, I’m starting to think that this is not the most important issue for me.

Everyone can go for a walk and shoot a wall. Everyone. But not everyone has the chance of being there during the creative process. And this is what this shot is about.

It’s about being there, right there, feeling the energy of creation. It’s about intimacy, about detail, about the personal connection with the artist, because you were able to be that close. And not everyone can be that close, that’s for sure…

I’m grateful for having the chance of living these moments of proximity, knowing that those artists that you’re shooting at trust you and allow you to be there, right there. And this is what really matters to me as a street art photographer right now.

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Artists: Reskate and Cinta Vidal. Cinta is not shown in the pic. Assistant to the artists: Chea

Project: 12+1 by Contorno Urbano

 

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