Moniker Art Fair

artAZ joins the leading urban art fair

We participated in Moniker Art Fair 2013, the 4th annual edition of London’s premiere Art Fair for Contemporary Urban & Street Art.

Showing at Stand 11, artAZ presented an eclectic team of European artists, coming from three different countries (Germany, Greece, UK), offering an interesting outlook of European Urban & Street Art trends.

Curated by: Alexandra Kollaros

Date: October 2013

Location: Truman Brewery, London

Supported by: Aegean Airlines

Within Moniker’s Talks Program, Alexandra Kollaros, artAZ’s founder and chief curator, and Greek street artist Argyris SER discussed “Art & Politics: The Greek Street Art Scene Examined” with Cedar Lewisohn.

CONSTANTINE VRAZIOTIS (Athens, Greece)

One of the hottest new entries in the Greek Art Scene, Constantine Vraziotis originally gained recognition in the field of illustration, but quickly developed a devoted fun base since he introduced the audience to “Coco” – his iconic muse and central heroine. His violently elegant work features novel uses of traditional techniques and is informed by disparate sources, most notably urban fixations, high fashion, and Byzantine iconography. Lavish and decadent, Constantine’s paintings, feature meticulous detailing and concealed unexpected, often disturbing elements, hinting to the dark side of society. Macabre pop surrealism at its best.

FLYING FÖRTRESS (Munich & Hamburg, Germany)

Munich based artist Flying Förtress started to do classic graffiti in the early 90’s. After a couple of years he felt himself stuck in a one-way alley so he quit writing and focused on his graphic design studies. He arose again at the beginning of the millennium and hit the streets with an army of his iconic Teddy Troops. After having occupied his local territories Flying Fortress started to invade other countries, exhibiting his work across the continents. His Commission Work Clients include ADDICT (UK), CARHARTT (DE), KIDROBOT (US) QUIKSILVER (FR), among others, and he also runs his own t-shirt label, ROCKAWAYBEAR. The book “Part Of Rebellion # 1 – Flying Förtress” was released in November 2008.

PURE EVIL (London, UK)

With a family tree that includes a number of saints and members of various European royal dynasties, Pure Evil is perhaps the most blue-blooded Urban artist working today, and certainly one of the most sought-after. The artist has a keen interest in exploring the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse. After a decade in California, during which he was influenced by West Coast Graffiti artists, he returned to London and started painting (his now trademark) PURE EVIL bunny rabbits everywhere. In the past 5 years Pure Evil has exhibited worldwide, presenting solo exhibitions in China, Russia, Mongolia, Brazil, USA and all over Europe. He regularly gives workshops and participates in lectures about street art.

SER & SIMONI FONTANA (Thessaloniki-Corfu, Greece)

Crowned Queen of Greek Street Art, Simoni Fontana, is one of the most popular artists of the genre. Her style is characterised by an almost childlike innocence, with references drawing from Japanese iconography and manga, filtered through a sensitive western outlook and pop surreal aesthetics. The trademark female characters contain traits of the artist, thus abstractly hinting to self-portraiture. Working both solo and as a duo with her alter ego SER, Simoni is extremely sought after, whether for her murals or her canvases and print editions, for which there is an on-going waiting list.

Considered the Old Master of Greek Street Art SER is one of the pioneers of the scene of Greece, largely responsible for its formation. His work – a curiously eclectic blend of old school graffiti, comic culture and pop surrealism – has a dark undertone yet is highly satirical, employing an arsenal of monstrous but benign characters, to highlight and comment on the absurdity of human nature. SER’s work is all over Greece, in the form of large-scale murals, paintings placed in important collections, and commercial work, created in association with major local and international brands.