Tag Archives: ROA

9 Artists Predicted to Make Waves in 2016

If you are into art, you will have heard of the famous names doing the rounds. However, there are many artists currently under the radar who are looking for the chance to break out and make it big. Here are 9 artists who are predicted to make waves in 2016:

1. David Choe

He is an American artist of Korean descent, best known for figure painting, creating murals, graffiti and creating novel graphics. His paintings have been called “dirty style” for they portray excitement, degradation and desire with a chaotic, raw tone. He is famous for his “Bucktoothed Whale” graffiti and many others he made on the streets of Los Angeles. He has been creating street art since he was a teenager, inspired by other graffiti artists of LA, such as Mear One and Hex. He also accepted Facebook stock options in exchange for painting a mural, which is now believed to be worth a lot of money.

David Choe | Art-Pie

2. Rosson Crow

She is also an American artist from LA. She claims to be inspired by diverse references, such as the cowboy culture, Las Vegas architecture, theatre and music. She creates large-scale paintings that drip with excitement, illustrating theatre with a touch of history. For instance, her 2007 painting “Night at the Palamino” illustrates a scene at a Hollywood nightclub which once played hosts to legendary artists, such as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson.

Rosson Crow | Art-Pie

3. James Jean

He is an American artist of Taiwanese descent. He is known for creating various DC comic book covers and has received various recognitions in that industry. However, in 2008, Jean retired from his comic book drawings to focus on painting. He has been incredibly successful in his painting career as well, most notably known for his work with Prada, including a mural for the 2008 show in Milan. Jean’s paintings are known for their romanticism and poetic depictions.

James Jean | Art-Pie

4. Adam Neate

He is a conceptual artist from Britain. He has been ranked at the top for creating urban street art. In his early years, Neate painted on cardboard boxes he found on the street, and now major collectors and celebrities bid high money for his original artwork. He mostly creates figurative images in multi-dimensional tones. He left hundreds of paintings on the streets of London as an open exhibition. From there, he got invited to many solo exhibitions and was recognized as a pioneer of the new movement which showed street art in conventional art galleries. He claims to get inspiration from his wife, graffitist Daze and Picasso.

Adam Neate | Art-Pie

5. ROA

He is a Belgian graffiti artist, known for his street work in Europe, United States, Australia and New Zealand. His work usually comprises of wild animals or birds found in the city he is painting. He works with minimal colors, mostly using black, white and red. He only uses vibrant colors when depicting internal organs of the animals. He has created many large-scale murals in popular urban areas.

ROA | Art-Pie

6. Jeff Soto

He is an American artist from California, known for combining street art with pop surrealism. Even though he has done graffiti from a young age, he claims to be “a muralist with an occasional urge to do some graf.” Soto also works as a freelance illustrator, providing editorial work to clients, such as Entertainment Weekly, Sony Music, United Airlines and Disney. Soto has also created remarkable paintings and had his first solo exhibit in Los Angeles’s New Image Art Gallery. Soon he was invited to many other solo exhibits and has been successfully merging street art with pop surrealism.

Jeff Soto | Art-Pie

7. Saber

He is an American artist from California, known for his graffiti and paintings in Los Angeles. He is famously known for creating large-scale graffiti on the concrete bank of the Los Angeles River. The painting took him a year to complete, using 97 gallons of paint. It is the largest known graffiti in the world and can be viewed from a satellite. His graffiti went viral and he has since created many pieces of art.

Saber | Art-Pie

8. Audrey Kawasaki

She is also an American artist from Los Angeles, California. She is known for painting on wood panels, depicting young, adolescent women who seem to be erotically charged. Her art is an infusion of the Japanese Manga and Art Nouveau. She claims to be influenced by Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha. She dropped out of Pratt Institute in New York City because her professors discouraged her from her style of painting, which mostly included nudes. She has since been a rising star of Los Angeles. One of her paintings was tattooed on singer Christina Perri on an episode of LA Ink.

Audrey Kawasaki | Art-Pie

9. Aya Takano

She is a Japanese artist known for creating art with an infusion of manga and anime. She also portrays science fiction in her paintings, taking inspiration from her father’s library of natural sciences and science fiction. Her artwork illustrates exotic animals and architecture found in urban cities, usually portraying juxtaposition between future and fantasy. She worked under Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami who helped her polish her skills. Takano’s paintings capture Japan’s Otaku culture but from a feminine perspective and show how this culture will boom in the future.

Aya Takano | Art-Pie

Visual Impact – Creative Dissent in the 21th Century

Liz McQuiston‘s new book ‘Visual Impact – Creative Dissent in the 21th Century’, is out now.   It is a richly illustrated exploration on art and design driving major social and political change in the 21st century.

Loads of events, such as Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, etc., plus social issues like poverty, equality, gun-control and more, have given rise to what is known as ‘activist’ or ‘protest’ art.

Visual Impact highlights the extraordinary power of art and graphic design to affect social and political change. Generously illustrated with over 400 images, this is a visual guide to the most influential and highly politicized imagery of the digital age.  Read more about the book

To celebrate the book and all dissident artists, we’ve included some famous and striking images below from artists conveying a strong (and often) political message.

Artist: JR

JR | Art-Pie
28 Millimetres: Women Are Heroes by JR, Kenya, 2009. From Visual Impact

Artist: ROA

The Lenticular Rabbit by ROA, London, UK, 2009. Photo by RomanyWG.
The Lenticular Rabbit by ROA, London, UK, 2009. Photo by RomanyWG.

Artist: unknown

From Visual Impact: Creative Dissent in the 21st Century
From Visual Impact: Creative Dissent in the 21st Century

Artist: Princess Hijab

‘Hijabizing’ intervention in the Paris Metro by Princess Hijab, France, 2006-11. From Visual Impact (Phaidon, 2015)
‘Hijabizing’ intervention in the Paris Metro by Princess Hijab, France, 2006-11. From Visual Impact (Phaidon, 2015)

Artist: Blek Le Rat

Stencilled poster of US soldier by French artist Blek le Rat, pasted along the route of anti-war march in Paris, France, 2003. Photo by Sybille Prou. From Visual Impact (Phaidon, 2015)
Stencilled poster of US soldier by French artist Blek le Rat, pasted along the route of anti-war march in Paris, France, 2003. Photo by Sybille Prou. From Visual Impact (Phaidon, 2015)

Metazoa, a new show by ROA

ROA | Art-Pie

Belgium, the country where Roa is from, must be a far away from what this artists get to travel to. I remember seeing a few years back the first street art pieces from ROA across London and thinking: what this guy does is quite fresh.

Now, look what he is up to: a show in New York city at the Jonathan Levine gallery. Nice one.

Then, when I heard about that show, I thought it is going to be the same shit: wildlife subjects, 2 colour artwork (black and white) on some wooden panels which can be manipulated by viewers to reveal the inside of the depicted animals.

ROA | Art-Pie

Guess what? Bang on. However, I noticed that the quality of the paintings is sharper and that the artist uses in a bolder way, the red colour to emphasise the inside of his painted animals.

A friend actually sent me a link to that show and when I said to him, ‘You know what, I am sure I have seen it before’, he replied that accomplished artists have a style of their own, a signature and if people like it, and I am sure you are all like it, why change it. He, like of all us, need to fill his pockets with money so if what he does, sell, then be it.

Point made and agreed. Yes I have seen it before but I would fly to New York right after I finished writing up this post just because seeing ROA’s stuff is always enjoyable and fun.
ROA | Art-Pie

The show runs until the 2nd May 2015.

Lucky enough to live in New-York and actually planning on checking it that show? We would love if you could share your pics and thoughts about it so get in touch today!

What – “Metazoa”, a solo show by ROA
Where – “Jonathan Levine gallery, 529 West 20th Street, Gallery I, New York (USA)
When – until the 2nd May 2015

ROA | Art-Pie

ROA | Art-Pie

ROA | Art-Pie

ROA | Art-Pie

First seen on Mashkulture