The Mexican visual artist POSK creates fantastic creatures with a mix of mythology and abstract on canvas, on house walls in urban spaces or as a tattoo artist with his project PIEL RITUAL on human skin. The artworks inspire dreams of another world and are breathtaking and fascinating on both a large and small scale.
For the extensive mural project “Museo a Cielo Abierto” in San Miguel in Chile, he contributed an interesting mural with a bird-headed woman. Through this artwork we got in touch with POSK and had an interview with him about his great art and his creative projects.
Your art is very versatile and you work in different areas such as streetart, drawing or illustration. But you don’t only paint walls and objects with bright colors and patterns, you also paint human bodies with big tattoos. What came first and how did you get started in art?
My first approach to visual creation was through graffiti when I was 17 years old, from there I began to learn design software and digital illustration, photography, painting, drawing and since 5 years ago I started tattooing, I studied graphic design and visual arts.
Your murals often show bizarre figures from dream worlds and fantasy. They are often characters that you have put together from different figures. Zoomorphic creatures associated with Mexican tradition. For example, an elegant woman with a bird’s head or interesting creatures with body parts of different animals. Tell us more about these characters.
I began to create these characters studying mythology from various parts of the world, an idea detonated these beings: human beings are symbolic animals, however rational and intellectual we behave there is an animal part that we never lose. We learn to live with it and it is that part that links us with the animal and natural world. I try to express that with my zoomorphic characters.
You are more of a character painter and paint mainly figures. But have you also painted letters and graffiti? What do you like about the characters and why do you prefer to paint them?
I started in my formative stage doing illegal bombing and graffiti tags. I liked it but these forms and letters did not allow me to fully express my ideas and feelings as I imagined them in my mental and imaginative process, that’s why I started to create characters, give them identity and place them in scenarios. This allowed me to create narratives and stories where my ideas could be expressed more closely to what I wanted.
How do you create your paintings? Sometimes they are smaller works, but often you paint huge murals on high house facades. Tell us more about what it’s like to paint on large surfaces.
For me painting is painting regardless of the support or technique, I feel that painting canvas I can be in a closer and more intimate process, dialoguing with myself and my processes and ideas, the activity of a studio painter can be very solitary and silent. On the other hand, painting in a large format in a public space changes the vibe, you enter into a dialogue with the people of a place, with the architecture, with the weather, you use your whole body to paint, there is more movement and spatial displacement, you paint at different heights, at different temperatures and solar illumination.
What do you use to create your artwork? Only spray cans or also wall paint? Do you also use brushes or other equipment? I saw you also have some works that look like they were painted with watercolor.
In my work I use different techniques and tools, I have painted with acrylic paints, oil, watercolor, spray, brushes, airbrush, digital painting, silkscreen, charcoal, graphite, recently I like to mix different techniques in the same work.
You also paint in black and white and on smaller canvases. How do you create these paintings? Is it with ink, pencil or charcoal? What do you like about this type of painting? I find the works with the astronaut helmet particularly interesting.
I use stylographs, Indian ink, graphite and charcoal and I like to do without color in many moments, I feel that the impact of contrast is quite energetic. Talking about the astronauts series, it is a metaphor where I explore my contextual perception of where I live, I have noticed and heard many people from my town wishing to migrate to the big city. There is a very confusing idea of “progress” if they can leave this place to live in the spaces of the city. For this reason I see many people who wish that, as migrant explorers. The curious situation is that when they manage to arrive to these big and crowded spaces they are like “foreigners” and the people of the city many times look at the migrant of the rural places as an other “stranger”. That is why I ask myself, what is the aspect of these travelers? Who is inside these astronaut helmets?
Tell us more about your tattoos. Are you a tattoo artist in a specific studio or do you have a collective? When did you start and what do you like about tattooing?
I have my own tattoo project called Piel Ritual and there I perform more as an independent tattooist. I have also tattooed in other people’s studios, but I regularly do it within my private space. I started in 2017 out of curiosity, a friend offered to teach me, from there I understood this activity better, I practiced a lot and kept developing myself. I like that tattooing can be a ritual of identity and body transformation, the person who tattoos, seeks a transformation through a symbolic wound, images that are inserted in the skin and in the psyche of individuals.
Similar to murals, you have many characters and fantastic figures to stitch in tattoos. At Piel Ritual you can find a wide selection. How would you describe your tattoo art? What tattoos do you like to do and which ones do you specialize in?
I try that my characters, figures and ideas can move in the various techniques and media, both in a mural or on someone else’s skin. I like the black work and black and gray style, I have also done color tattoos but I prefer the contrast and volume that can be achieved only with black ink and dilutions.
On your channels you can also find photos of objects and collages. They are often everyday objects like signs or just stone formations that you have photographed, but then edited in a very interesting way. The results are very reminiscent of pop art. Tell us more about these projects.
This project is an archive that I started in 2016, I like to go out on the street, observe and photograph, I began to see these objects as “totems” almost incidental sculptures of the people of my context, I like their wild aesthetics, how they break into the urban landscape, I think it is an expression of identity, I decided to remove the background of these photographs to focus the attention to these objects, then I based my work on the street advertising that are found on the lamp posts in my place of residence, many of them are printed on phosphorescent colored cardboard and I used this as the support of these objects, this series was exhibited in a gallery in California in 2022.
Your work has been in galleries several times and you’ve had a few solo exhibitions. Tell us more about where you’ve exhibited so far?
I have participated in projects and galleries in Mexico as well as abroad, I have been in countries such as Germany, United States, France, Argentina, Ecuador and Chile. It is certainly a very pleasant sensation to be able to see how my work is gestated in my small space of creation and then travels and moves to other spaces in other countries together with the work of other international artists.
A special work of yours is on a large house wall in Santiago de Chile in the San Miguel neighborhood. It is part of the urban art project “Museo a Cielo Abierto“. That’s how the contact between us actually came about. How did it come about that you participated there? Tell us more about the project and your participation.
Participating in this project was very interesting, the idea was based on a representation of a female character as a metaphor for nature. There were 6 days of painting with the assistance of a Chilean painter. The most important thing was to have met several people from the community and to collaborate with a mural among the several international ones of the project.
How do you deal with crews, groups or collectives? Do you prefer to paint alone or in a group?
I regularly work alone since I make conceptual and aesthetic approaches from my artistic vision, although in murals of considerable dimensions and reduced time I need to hire some people to carry out the pictorial work. But recently I did several collaboration artworks with Javier Arreguin.
The painting event in Santiago was not only a “project”, it was also a gathering of many great artists. Maybe it wasn’t directly a jam, but it was a collaboration of many creatives. Tell us more about such actions and graffiti festivals. Do you like going to jams? After all, it’s more like a family reunion, where many grandiose works of art are created together.
In general all international festivals are great galleries of artists from around the world, it is very nice to participate in such meetings, in this case, when I painted there were no artists painting at the same time in Santiago, however seeing my mural part of this great project in the open sky is very gratifying for me. In Germany I participated in an event called Millerntor Gallery that takes place in Hamburg and which is a great coexistence of artists and the public from different parts of the world.
Jams are different from the project in Santiago. With such large murals, it happens differently and it also takes a lot more time. Are there other painting projects like the “Museo a Cielo Abierto” that you have participated in?
In terms of murals in my community in Ecatepec I have participated in a festival that included the work of various artists, some of them from Latin America, I have also participated in the international festival of urban art Meeting of Styles in the city of Guadalajara in Mexico, however of large murals the Museo a Cielo Abierto project is the only one in which I participated with these characteristics.
Which artists have influenced you in the course of your development? Are there any artists you would describe as role models? Which artists have inspired and influenced you?
There are several artists that have influenced me in different moments of my career, in the beginning I liked the work of H.R Giger, Salvador Dali and Akira Toriyama, later with the years I discovered and studied the work of the Mexican muralist Jorge Gonzalez Camarena, I also liked the work of Juan O’Gorman and Jose Guadalupe Posadas. Currently I study the work of artists according to the series or project I am working on, some years ago I was studying the work of the muralist Aryz and the painter Mark Ryden. I am currently analyzing the work of artists such as Tetsuya Ishida, Jiri Anderle, Antwan Horfee, Daniel Guzman, Chapman Brothers, Sigmar Polke and Dana Schutz.
Tell us about the situation in Mexico in terms of urban art and graffiti. Are there any legal places to spray at all, or is it just done everywhere like that?
In Mexico there is a very strong tendency to branding mural art, which is a mixture of advertising interests with mural spray paint, fortunately commercial brands are investing budget in the creation of various murals with these characteristics, the unfortunate thing in this part is that we can not fully see the soul and ideas of urban artists as much is conditioned by a brand identity or the interests of a public institution. On the other hand there are, as always, outsider artists who make their proposals in the streets far from the spotlight of interest, that is where my attention lies in observing what is currently being done either legally or illegally, but where there is a greater production of meaning. As for illegal graffiti I am somewhat disconnected from this scene, however this type of graffiti is very present in the city.
Give us some more information about your city and the urban art there. What places would you recommend and where should others definitely go if they are fans of graffiti?
I live in a municipality in the State of Mexico called Ecatepec, it is a place of social contrasts and very marked social and contextual problems, however it is a place of hard working people and where there are also many people with creative talent. To observe urban art or large murals in my place of residence, at least interesting proposals is almost null, there are more murals and paintings of small dimensions since in this area we do not have large buildings and constructions, this type of murals can be found more in Mexico City. A very exciting place to observe graffiti since the 90’s and which I would recommend to visit is Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, cradle of graffiti in the center of the country.
Tell us a bit more about the art scene in general and the creative players. Which artists would you recommend to look at? Whether it’s graffiti, streetart, tattoo, sculptures, films or musicians.
There are countless creative proposals in Mexico City and the State of Mexico alone, there is an immense amount of proposals that can be found nowadays, both visual and musical, urban art, conceptual art, graffiti, tattoos, comics, illustration, music, film, gastronomy, etc. Currently there is a very important generational change, fresh and new creators are emerging based on non-traditional aesthetics based on languages of the internet and the 90’s, as well as interesting sound proposals based on exploring experimental music and neo reggaeton. To mention just a few proposals, I would recommend reviewing the work of illustrator Jesús Benítez Fragoso, cartoonist Apolo Cacho, the graffiti of Yoste.1, the mural and tattoo of Zero Trez, the mural of the ChaChaCha collective, the conceptual drawing of Obra Negra, the graphics of Roberto García, Javier Arjona and the tattoo of Alan Daniel. On the sound level, I would recommend listening to the proposal of a group called “Diles que no me maten” as well as the experimental music of the young artist K i a.
Where would you like to paint in the future? Is there a special place where you would like to see a piece of your art?
Some time ago I imagined the idea of having painted at least one mural in each of the 5 continents of the world, I have only painted in America and Europe, and I have been very close to have gone to exhibit and paint in Asia and Oceania but due to budget issues it was not achieved, I hope that life gives me the time, energy and economy to be able to paint in the remaining continents. At my age I like to think about the future and preservation of my work, I would like to see that my work at some point could be integrated into the collections of some museums and if I could fantasize a lot, I would like that some of what I have created could at some point leave this planet and travel to a museum in space, nothing costs to dream. On more possible grounds, I would like to return to Germany, to be able to paint now in Berlin and other cities in Germany, I would also like to do something on a creative level in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Paris, Reykjavik, Gothenburg, Bruges and Barcelona.
You have gone a long way yourself and have developed in art step by step. All this is not easy and you have to find not only the opportunities, but you also have to find your own style. There are many new and young artists who have just started. In the same way, there are artists who are stuck in the middle. As a conclusion, as a motivation and also as a wise advice, what are your words to the younger generation and to the new artists?
It is of big importance to learn to observe, listen and reflect to know more about others and oneself. To have increasingly clear and tangible goals is important, to know how to manage both time and resources. Read a lot, watch a lot of movies, listen to a lot of music, but all this not passively. We must have attentive eyes and ears. Reflect and question everything we are exposed to in our day to day. It is also very important to travel and to learn about other cultures, to make links and creative networks. Another aspect is to be able to diversify the work, not only to create original work that we hope will be acquired by collectors or galleries. It is very beneficial, to make derivatives of the work, stickers, pins, fanzines, t-shirts, everything that is accessible to other audiences. I think that art can not be only for an elite, the more democratic and accessible is all that production of senses can reach more people and help build a less gray world. A world more conscious and more connected with symbols and other ways of feeling and experiencing reality.
INFOTHEK
Artist: POSK – POSKEONE – MIGUEL ANGEL MONTAÑO MARTÍNEZ
Website: https://poskeone.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/poskeone
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@poskeone
Tattoo Project: PIEL RITUAL
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pielritual
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pielritual
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