Hola Valencia

I see graffiti as a necessary symptom of life in contemporary cities. A painted wall represents a way of using the city that is not thought about socially (though it becomes more so every day). It seems very interesting to me that people that live in a city do not settle for using it according to imposed rules; they invent new ways of utilizing it.

These are the words of Escif, Valencia’s most famous street artist, in an excerpt from the book Textura: Valencia Street Art we found over at Graphics.com

Escif’s work will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s spent time walking around the city. Spooky black & white bird-like people populate his images, which seem to usually be social commentaries on topics like capitalism and religion. There’s an artistic style to his work which makes it stand out from more traditional graffiti, or even mural painting.

One of Escif’s paintings was the background on my iPhone for a long time… they’re really striking & fun. New images seem to be springing up all the time. He has a Flickr photostream, which collects all of his paintings to date. And if you get a chance, make sure read the excerpt over at Graphics.com to learn a good deal more about the artist.

Here are some more photos of the work of Valencia’s premier street artist, which we have taken during our time in the city: