All posts tagged: Tuco Wallach

Steph Curry Street Art with Tuco Wallach and a Teddy Bear in France

October 3, 2022 Artists

Ja Morant, James Harden, Trae Young, Luka Doncic? Yes, they are all premier ball players this season in the NBA. But at the pinnacle of this survey of top athletes, says the sons of the French street artist Tuco Wallach, stands the 34-year-old Stephen Curry.

It’s agreed.

Tuco Wallach. NBA 2022/2023 Tribute. Somewhere in France. (photo courtesy of the artist)

Regardless of your socio-economic status, the street still meets you where you are at, and Tuco put this installation in his neighborhood as a tribute to entertaining athleticism, corporate sport media, and the celebrity heroism that basketball players now focus on. October starts the NBA 2022/2023, says Tuco, and “my two sons are very (very) happy.”

What better way to include home life with his street art than to feature superstar shooter Stephen Curry with one of his signature Teddy Bears?

BSA Film Friday: 01.14.22

January 14, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Humask & Shadow _ Light off/Light on. Tuco Wallach Pacifico
2. Bastardilla: La lingue dei carciofi
3. Saber: Escaping Los Angeles. From Chop ’em Down Films

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BSA Special Feature: Humask and Shadow

For artist Tuco Wallach the street art story has nearly always been a family affair that mixes easily with his Humask campaign. His psychological treatise on man’s relationship with himself and society and masks may be internal, but the actual street practice is often externalized to include friends and family to create, place, document the new works that go into the public places. Here, as a chill holiday recording of a moment, we see the intimate and precise care that goes into his process – a process that is open and welcoming, and participatory. He says the video is about wood cabins, family, shadows, lights, friends, and Humask.

Humask & Shadow _ Light off/Light on. Tuco Wallach Pacifico

Bastardilla: La lingue dei carciofi

In the depths of New York winter, we like to escape to that sticky and warm time in summer when the air and the bees buzzed in unison, the thick richness of the days and nights, lingering in reverie. At the time we called it Bastardilla in Love With Bees and the Taste of Summer in Stornara, Italy. We dare you not to fall in love or at least be enchanted.

Saber: Escaping Los Angeles. From Chop ’em Down Films

“You can tell a lot about a city just by reading its walls.” Okay, Saber, you have our attention. And it’s shot by Chop ’em Down films? We’re there. Here the graffiti writer and fine artists narrate the police state of the LA during one of its more dismal periods caught on camera – and the record of a constant state of uprising.

Now a grand don of graffiti looking back, he sees the fall of LA hasn’t halted, only intensified, but his heart is still in it. He has become performative, crystalizing the movements of his work and his history into a gestural full-body modern performance; rebellious and distraught and yet full of passion – his own evolution from the street to the studio to the street again.

Tuco Wallach Moves to “Humasks” on the Street and Beach in France

September 20, 2021 Artists, Interview, Interviews

Perhaps more studied than the typical aerosol vandal, Tuco Wallach works for days in studio to prepare his works that go into the public sphere. Stencils based on his merged photo collages emerge as wood cutout Humasks, a uniquely titled campaign of figures he puts out under cover of night, or out in broad daylight, in his hometown in France.

Tuco Wallach. “Humasks” (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Sometimes alone, often as a project with friends or with his family, Tuco shares his ideas and the process of putting work in public with his two young boys and his wife and others who those close to him. His craftsmanship is meticulous, precise, and his mind is immersed in a fantastic world that lies just inside one thin slice of yours.

He carefully cuts and finishes these “woodshapes”, and they are never far from him. “I always have a few ‘woodshapes’ with me and shoot them in streets or landscapes,” he says.

This summer his characters were stuck to walls, or posed in natural scenes long enough for him to photograph them, the magic captured for posterity. Tuco’s is an ongoing practice, one that entertains him and connects him with people, rather than separates him. Because his characters are shy, perhaps, they like to wear masks. He calls them “humasks”

We asked Tuco a few questions about his new campaign:

BSA: What is the new campaign “humasks” about?
Tuco Wallach: After mixing for a long time humans and animals (“manimals”), I wanted to explore a new area : the masks and humans. I’ve always been very interested about masks in popular culture, movies, music… the subject is “infinite” for me. I began to make my first “humasks” just before the pandemic… Maybe the meaning has changed now. Perhaps it sounds a little “cliché”, but I wonder who’s behind the mask? We all are always wearing different masks with family, friends, and colleagues.

BSA: What is the process for selecting a figure for whom you will create a humask?
Tuco Wallach: It depends – but my process doesn’t really change. All my drawings come from my pictures (not necessarily the masks). I shoot unknown people and I add a mask to their figure later, and create my stencil from that result. Sometimes the mask influences me regarding how I choose a figure, sometimes it’s the contrary. I make tests and and at some point, I feel it’s right.

BSA: When you have added the mask, does the figure become a new character?
Tuco Wallach: Definitely it does for me. Each time the new figures become my ‘little friends”. They have a parallel life in my mind, like super heroes 🙂

BSA: There is a certain anonymity in putting street art up in public places. Do you wear a mask sometimes in public as well?
Tuco Wallach: No. Just my cap and my bike. If I was wearing a mask when pastings my “humasks” I think it may become too complicated.

Tuco Wallach: What’s The Manimal Looking At?

January 9, 2017 Artists

“Barter and flea market for the curious.

Open the safe door.

Take a look

Deposit, Take, Exchange!”

Tuco Wallach shares his latest interactive project today to see what people will use the deposit box for in his social experiment. He says it wasn’t a solo endeavor, but rather a little group project with friends and family in his hometown of Besançon, France. Known for his animal headed figures (Manimals) perfectly placed and photographed in scenes throughout the city, the accompanying 8 minute video below also reveals his level of skill with the power saw in the home workshop.

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

For those with and affinity for power tools, the construction of the box is possibly riveting and seeing the painstaking hand cutting of his stencils reminds you of the time when stencil Street Artists didn’t skip that human step and instead sent their Illustrator files to the laser cutter via email and waited for the stencils to arrive in the mail.

With a hypnotic folky /electronic soundtrack, this is art painstakingly created at a slow pace in the controlled environment of a studio with studied attention to craftsmanship. The results are precise – edges of the miter-sawed figure are even finished with a black marker. This level of preparation and materials and deep-bench electric tool supply called upon is probably comical to those who cut out their cardboard stencils on the linoleum floor of the tiny kitchen of their cramped apartment and practice the hit-and-run technique of aerosol spraying in a stolen moment directly on a street wall.

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

It won’t surprise you to discover that there are actually a number of Street Artists who can also put a new bathroom or kitchen cabinetry or a breakfast nook in your home, and actually do that kind of work as a profession.

But it’s the quick shot of Jack Nicholson’s crazed face thrust through the hole of a smashed door that captures your eye as a worn copy of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is the initial donation to the book swap box. Is this a specific choice for a conversation-starter, an incidental outlier, or a clue? What does the fox say?

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.31.16

January 31, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

How are things with you? Did you survive the snow/slush/sludge? Did you check out the launch of SOLD magazine this week? It’s made by artists for artists, and straight out of Brooklyn – check out their Instagram here. Proceeds from the show will help keep it going. We start this weeks images with a few from Nick Walker’s show at the Quin hotel. See Nick in February in person with Daze and KET at the Museum of the City of New York.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Col Wallnuts, Jilly Ballistic, Kai, Nick Walker, RAE, REVS, and Tuco Wallach.

Our top image: Nick Walker. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker’s exhibition at the Quin Hotel in Manhattan is currently on view and open to the public.

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco Wallach somewhere in the world with one more of his Manimals. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

RAE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklym NY. January 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.01.15

November 1, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A stunning panoply of events all at once this Halloween weekend in New York – The Mets are in the “World Series” playing here and everybody is a fan, the New York City Marathon is today (oldest participant is nearly 95), and everybody’s clocks get set back an hour. More than your average number of freaks and weirdos have been on the subway and street and in bars and in your hallway, some asking for candy, and a lot of people decorated their haunted castles. Check out our Halloween Street Art posting from yesterday, Boo!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bifido, Binho, Cdre, City Kitty, Crash, Crummy Gummy, Curve, Hunt, London Kaye, Oldy, Rae, Ron English, Solus, Specter, Tony DePew, and Zafuto.

Top image above >>> Crummy Gummy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oldy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Twunny Twunny Twunny four hours a day…Crash and Solus’ tribute to Joey Ramone – across the street from the ghost of CBGBs. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Observe . Listen . Reveal. Pillars of the fourth estate. Ron English re-interprets the three wise monkeys for #NotACrimeCampaign (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An all too familiar scene- not sure what to think of this one. Check out the cat in the lower corner. Bifido in Athens, Greece. (photo © Bifido)

Tony Depew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The tags on the cab are a great balance to the CURVE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zafuto. Not sure if the tag was added later. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cdre takes on Chuck Berry. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE sitting on a wall like Humpty Dumpty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Specter billboard take over nearly levitates futuristically. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Could this be Tuco Wallach? This piece is very similar to his Manimal series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. October 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.04.15

October 4, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Visual Bliss, Buttless Supreme, Case Ma’Claim, Dre, Jaye Moon, KAS, Kelly Towles, Lexi Bella, Mr. Prvrt, Pear, Shark Toof, Specter, Tuco Wallach, and What Will You Leave Behind.

Top image above >>> Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Tuco Wallach: Manimals in the Back Alley and Back Yard

April 20, 2015 Artists, Interview

Who’s that Raccoon Strumming a Guitar in the Woods?

Let’s be clear, these are staged photos in an outdoor setting – similar in technique to miniature outside artists such as Joe Iurato and Isaac Cordal. In a way, one recalls the games of childhood where you projected yourself onto a toy in a fictional setting — at the wheel of a racing Matchbox car or marching around a sand castle or drowning Ken in the pool at Malibu Barbie’s Dream house.

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By positioning cast members into new circumstances and using your imagination, the directer (you) uses the natural and man-made environment as a movie or theater “set” to infer a storyline, a narrative. In this case the French street artist Tuco Wallach is also conceiving of, photographing, manipulating, painting and sculpting the characters – the result are the famed man/animal hybrids that George Bush warned us of. Their everyday non-chalance casts doubt on unreality and placing them in environments helps you to broaden your imagination and begin your story…

Brooklyn Street Art: Let’s start with your name. Is it inspired by the character, Tuco Ramirez, masterfully played by Eli Wallach as the “Ugly” dude in Sergio Leone’s “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”?
Tuco: Exactly. I’m a complete fan of spaghetti westerns and especially “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” – the music, the atmosphere, and the characters… Sometimes people believe that my name comes from Tuco Salamanca of Breaking Bad. Even though I like that show also, I really prefer the “loser Tuco” created by Sergio Leone.

Brooklyn Street Art: Judging from the photos of your outdoor installations they appear to be fastidiously staged and professionally lit as if they were shot on a set. Do you leave the artwork at the exact location where the photo was taken?
Tuco: I try each time to find a special spot for my cutouts, a place where the character seems to be comfortable. I like to play with the weather too: snow, sun, rain, shadows.. For the moment, I don’t leave the artwork where the picture has been taken. I really wanted at the beginning to do it, but to be honest, most times the wood shape falls to the ground after shooting it so I’ll need to improve my technique before I can do that.

Brooklyn Street Art: You are doing hybrid stencils with men and animals. What sparks your imagination, attracts you to hybrids?
Tuco: Since childhood, I always appreciated illustrations with humans and animals! And I grew up in a little village, in the countryside. I can’t really explain it. Maybe it sounds a little cliché but I think humans are animals. I particularly like mixing humans and animals.

I believe these creatures, which I call “manimals” may cause people to pose questions about them; What are manimals doing within these urban structures? What do they think about our modern cities? Maybe they represent a wild side in that is opposition to the “concrete world” around them? Have they got a different look because of their origins? What do they imagine when watching us and what do we think when seeing them?

I suppose manimals have a universal mythological side: they represent both the good and evil, they are for everyone, children and adults, they could be seductive and disturbing … The most important thing for me is: they must surprise.

Brooklyn Street Art: What are the pros and the cons of working with small stencils wheat pasted on wood cut boards?
Tuco: I used to paint on various stuff: walls, papers, stickers. At home primarily I paint on wood, but also on maps, books… Honestly, I really like to make big drawings on walls when I have the opportunity. Each time I make large pieces, it is such a good feeling and I want to do it more!

However it is also very pleasant to make small stencils, to try to be very precise when cutting. As I said before I like painting on wood, and working with the wood shapes. I also enjoy using my jigsaw to cut the character, breathe the smell of the wood. It’s like a little challenge each time for me – don’t break the piece of wood, don’t scratch the colors, find the right place at the right moment for the picture.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you think that eventually wild animals and dense cities where humans live will collide and merge with one another and it will be common to see bears, coyotes, alligators, bob cats, deer and other fauna roaming the streets of big metropolis?
Tuco: With this question, I mean when you speak about big cities, this is the dream I have every night!

As I said before, I lived an in rural area when I was a child. Sometimes when you are there you can see a deer, and each time, it is completely magic. I want to believe that one day we can really live with animals in urban areas. And I’m optimistic, for example, I spent a while in London and each day I saw foxes near a church because the priest fed them. But I have to be honest too, how will I react if I meet a bear or an alligator? For a very long time now we have been chasing animals away from cities; maybe now they need revenge!

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you think that wild fauna will be called invasive species as they move into metropolitan dwellings in search of food and water? As you say, humans have been the invaders of their habitats but the tables may turn.
Tuco: Such an interesting question! Who are the invaders in fact? And who will be the future invaders?

When I draw manimals, I try to dream about cohabitation between humans and animals. For an example, when a manimal rides a skateboard, for me, he has the primitive instinct of an animal and the reflexive capacity of a human.

Maybe I have to put small and bigger wood shapes all around the world to support my thought: live together! With my stencils, I always use a picture I’ve taken (not necessarily the animal head, but the rest of it). Each of my drawings has a special story in my mind, a narrative. Here’s a guy wandering at the market on Sunday morning, here is a musician sitting at a street corner, a grandmother walking quietly.. Then I add an animal head to the body and it continues the story for me. It marks the duality, the union between humans and animals.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you always leave an installation behind in the cities and countries you visit?
Tuco: Yes. In most places I visit I take a homemade sticker or something else to leave a little souvenir in the street.

Most of the times, I travel with small pieces in my bag. If I can make a child smile I believe I that I win something. Just for this reason I want to continue.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Special Feature: Humask and Shadow

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

It won’t surprise you to discover that there are actually a number of Street Artists who can also put a new bathroom or kitchen cabinetry or a breakfast nook in your home, and actually do that kind of work as a profession.

Tuco Wallach. Besançon, France. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Our top image: Nick Walker. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco Wallach somewhere in the world with one more of his Manimals. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

RAE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklym NY. January 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Top image above >>> Crummy Gummy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oldy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Twunny Twunny Twunny four hours a day…Crash and Solus’ tribute to Joey Ramone – across the street from the ghost of CBGBs. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Observe . Listen . Reveal. Pillars of the fourth estate. Ron English re-interprets the three wise monkeys for #NotACrimeCampaign (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An all too familiar scene- not sure what to think of this one. Check out the cat in the lower corner. Bifido in Athens, Greece. (photo © Bifido)

Tony Depew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The tags on the cab are a great balance to the CURVE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zafuto. Not sure if the tag was added later. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cdre takes on Chuck Berry. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAE sitting on a wall like Humpty Dumpty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Specter billboard take over nearly levitates futuristically. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Could this be Tuco Wallach? This piece is very similar to his Manimal series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. October 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Top image above >>> Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Billboard take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Billboard take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Double ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco Wallach new Manimal someplace warm in France. (photo © Tuco Wallace)

Shark Toof. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shark Toof. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shark Toof. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon. Is it? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT and A Visual Bliss. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DRE tribute to Dali. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buttless Supreme. Read (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kelly Towles. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pear (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lexi Bella (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAS for the Kosmopolite Art Tour 2015 in Belgium. (photo © KAS)

Untitled. Sweden. September 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Who’s that Raccoon Strumming a Guitar in the Woods?

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

Tuco Wallach (photo © Tuco Wallach)

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