Blu
Blu is a street artist currently based in Bologna, Italy.
Blu’s graffiti animation MUTO is sweeping the internet right now. The video is plastered all over art and design blogs. But, Blu is not a one off internet sensation, his work can be seen on walls all over the world and he was included in the 2008 show Street Art at the Tate Modern. In fact, I recognize his style from the days I used to collect images of graffiti off the internet and store them in unlabeled, cluttered files. I’m glad I finally have a name to go with the faces. Blu’s work, like much street art, is socially aware and critical. His work discusses the human condition and the loss that we all find ourselves at, often considering the unsettling psychological ramifications of contemporary life. Topics include our relationships with time, wealth, war, and isolation. Among the characters that he paints and draws the ones that are not actively being harmed, or harming themselves, have a kind of oblivious claustrophobia. It is as if they are just about to run out of air, but they do not know it yet.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/streetart
http://www.soulpancake.com/view_post/210246/just-remember-this-word-muto.html
(a long and reasonably articulate discussion of MUTO by non-artists)
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