"Simon Bolivar in a gas mask"
Stencils in Wynwood 2015
I was lucky enough to be at Miami in December 2015 during the Art Basel period, It was the second year I went in, and this time I was there because I was invited to participate in my first collective show at a renowned gallery. The feeling in the streets of wynwood is hard to describe, I have rarely felt such a concentration of creativity and modern urban international cutting edge culture as I have felt there, maybe the Sojo of the 80's in New York would have felt similar. All the walls are full of art from the best and most significant artists and muralists from the world, there are people free styling, dancing, performing arts everywhere and most of all, a huge quantity of people who support this endeavor. Wynwood is the Meqqa of contemporary street, pop, Latin and modern art of the times.
Another significant thing about the piece was this photo made by the very famous and talented Venezuelan photographer Donaldo Barros. He saw it and created this piece of art from the stencil and that makes me very proud, because inspiring people and creating common identity through symbols and art for me seems like a win-win-win. There has been incalculable uses of this image, people have made bootlegged it to t-shirts, made it profile pictures, memes and even use it as a political and social symbol of the civil society's Resistencia of Venezuela
