ANBI
1198
Street Art
Mural Painting
Stay Safe
Street Art Museum Amsterdam
Author:
Oxy Alien
Artist Bio:
Ox-Alien is a Dutch artist who started in the late 80's by first marking his name on everything that passed by, especially along the railway tracks and in high places. It is only from 2000 that he switched to "street art". During this 'era' it was most common to create wicked characters, develop your own style and show the world what you're made of. Instead of wild-styling and tagging, he created a pink flying head with one eye as an “O” and one eye as a “X”. Some people on the streets called it “Ox-Alien” and very quickly this became the artist's pseudonym. Ox-Alien is part of the collective called Lastplak that won the Public Choice Award of the Dutch Street Art First Prizes. Lastplak is a group of eleven painters with different backgrounds and skills. Their aim is to paint on any surface, size or location. The collective has painted all over the world, but most of their work can be seen in Rotterdam, the place of their homebase. As an international artist, Ox-Alien has also participated in mural projects in Thailand, France and Greece.
Place:
Confucius Playpark
Date:
2020-04
Technique:
Spray Can
Material:
Wall
Acquisition:
Commission
Completed:
2020-04
Condition:
Gone / Illegible
Physical Description:
The artwork is done in Oxy's classic cartoon style, full of saturated colours and strong visual contrasts reminiscent of cartoon aesthetics. The focus is on the pink-coloured virus pods spitting out a green substance that tries to enter houses. To create this work, the artist used latex paint for the background (dark blue) and then painted his characters with spray paint on top. For Ox-Alien, the street is his favourite medium: "A big empty wall and some bright spray paint colours is always great."
Iconography:
The artwork represents a small house in the middle with small characters inside, outside the evil coronavirus waiting to infect you. The iconography is quite easy and intuitive and is made up of these colourful virus pods trying to get inside houses. The home, on the other hand, is presented as a safe place, away from the virus, hence the exhortation for everyone to take civic responsibility. The wall is part of a larger project carried out by Oxy Alien on the theme of coronavirus: urban works on the same theme and in a similar style have been identified in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Gallery
