Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Ghent is small, certainly in European terms and the average American would think of it as more of a village than a town. Yet in the town there has always been encouragement for those who wish to express themselves artistically. There is a small but influential artistic community there and it is seen as a breeding group for new artists. A good word to describe the city as a whole is mellow.Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
Image Credit Flickr User vandalog
ROA loves animals, that is for sure, but there is something a little different about his depictions, something that gives them an edge. Even when they appear cuddly there is something beneath them that defies the cute tag – if not a danger then something urgent at the periphery of our vision which we can’t quite make out. There is something which engenders a disquiet when looking at his work something almost medieval in its vision of life and death.
Gathering an audience is not the main priority of ROA, although you might be forgiven for thinking so, considering the public nature of a lot of his work. However, he also paints in abandoned places, industrial areas where the human population have left and abandoned the area to nature. Often, the only animals who visit are small – and these survivors are reflected in his work even though they are often made giants by his paint.
You can find ROA's work in a number of European cities, such as London, Berlin and Barcelona as well as his home town of Ghent. Additionally, he can be found occasionally in the US, most notably New York.
To some, including a local council in London which is at the moment trying to remove a ROA piece, his work is nothing short of vandalism with a flourish, a defacement of property undesired and unnecessary. To others, though, his work is that of a free artist at large, unfettered by financial gain or institutional demands. The expression is free, the creativity is liberated and without restriction and for that many find his work uplifting.
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