Walking into the Buckwild Gallery, you immediately encounter the four stunning collaborations of graffiti artists EVOL (7th Letter) and TEAL (Fame City). Large-scale portraits of wide-eyed female bombshells masterfully executed with spray paint by EVOL are framed by vibrant lettering and loose can and brush strokes of TEAL.
Moving on to the walls that held each individual artist’s work, it is clear that the talent of both artists extend much further than the world of graffiti.
On the wall dedicated to EVOL’s work hung a collection of watercolor portraits of striking females that captivate, seduce, and confront as you admire them. We got a chance to chop it up with EVOL, who picked up graffiti after moving to California from the East Coast. “It was the thing to do, it was really wild. It was the most hardcore form of art,” says EVOL. The medium of spray cans intrigued him at first, and it eventually led him to attend Cal Arts and study character animation.
While EVOL brings a fine arts background into his graffiti work, TEAL uses graffiti aesthetic and lettering to take his work into a new realm.
TEAL’s work focused on lines and lettering. His canvases dripped with densely layered, boldly colored acrylic paint, pen, and aerosol. These pieces move toward the abstract while maintaining the stylistic integrity of their graff roots.
“Femme Fatal” proved, once again, the successful product of artists who boldly unite graffiti with other media.
-Alexis W.
Photos by David Winkelman