Art I Like 12 by Florent Vial

“What now seems like a lifetime but is merely a decade I wanted to encourage people to not just to 'see', but to
ago I sat slumped at my desk, head on arm pushing a look at what surrounds them and their lives, reflecting our
pencil round a piece of paper dreaming up ways to kill increasingly bizarre popular culture, re-thinking and
time and break the chains holding me to my desk, Monday reworking cultural figures and genres to comment on our
to Friday each day became the same and I was eating my ethos of conspicuous consumption. A Pandora’s box of
brain. bittersweet delights - sweet and sugary on the surface, but
with an unfamiliar, uncomfortable, taste beneath.
Then one day whilst dreaming up further ideas in the
series of 'Ways to kill time' the pencil lines on the pad This isn't the beginning, it's not the end it's happy never
started to become characters, strange and dysfunctional ending.
they formed my dysfunctional world which had no rule.
Slowly I figured the pencil could be replaced with a marker
pen - the Pentel N50 to be exact - and the paper replaced This isn't the beginning, it's not the end it's happy never
with cheap vinyl which was 'acquired' from DIY stores, ending.”
these characters once resigned to a life on paper filed in a
folder under 'Not suitable for visual consumption' began to
have a life of their own; adhered to lamp post and electri-
cal boxes they plotted and linked my route home, one
became 10 and slowly 10 became more than I can
remember. Each evening and as much of the day as I
could rob was spent drawing and cutting out stickers.
Stickers became posters, posters became more ambi-
tious... and somewhere in between I quit my job or maybe
that was I got fired, either way the inevitable had hap-
pened. Like a river cuts it's own path, I'd cut mine.

This family of dysfunctional characters began evolve, they
started to satirise and hold to ransom all that fell into their
grasp – a welcome jolt of subversion in today’s media-
saturated environment - the very same thing I'd grown up
on. Bank notes were drawn and printed over and put into
circulation for the unsuspecting to receive in their change,
billboards taken over with public service announcements...

Miss Van started wall-painting in the streets at the age of
18 in the early 1990s, initiating the feminine movement in
street art. She is now exhibiting all around the world from
NY to LA, Europe (France, Spain, Italy, UK), and Asia. An
artist's impact is truly felt when their work becomes so
familiar that it's hard to remember what the world was like
without it. When the Toulouse native and current Barce-
lona resident MISS VAN's sultry female characters began
to pop up on city center walls in the mid 1990s, they
instantly possessed a timeless quality, as if women had
always painted such graffiti in the streets. City residents
developed relationships with their local MISS VAN charac-
ters. While MISS VAN's work incurred the wrath of some
feminists who found them offensive to women, on the
whole it has a rare appeal that transcends gender.

Bristol Based Mr Jago, a pioneer of the doodle, founder
member of Scrawl Collective and a veteran in the street
art movement and much respected among his peers.
Growing up in a small town, Jagos interests in art and
design with influences from classic Marvel comics, graffiti
and hip-hop culture have help forge his unique freehand
style and distinct colour palette.
Jago has worked with some of the biggest international
brands such as Nike, Puma, Xbox, Yohji Yamamoto &
Boxfresh to name a few.

Art I Like 12 by Florent Vial

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Art I Like 12 by Florent Vial