Merging
September 8th, 2016 - November 11th, 2016
Graffiti Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of their exhibit Merging: showcasing works by Toronto street artist duo Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky, known together as the Clandestinos Collective.
Graffiti Gallery brings renowned street artist duo, Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky, together known as the Clandestinos Collective, to Winnipeg for a 2-week artist residency. The Clandestinos residency will feature an exhibit at Graffiti Gallery, a large-scale mural in the Dufferin neighbourhood, and an artist talk and youth workshop. The Clandestinos residency will explore how the arts can serve as a tool for community development in Winnipeg. As a collective, the Clandestinos explore themes of socio-cultural and economic values, their Latin American heritage, and environmental issues that impact our planet.
The Clandestinos have extensive, international experience creating large-scale public murals, working with community groups from diverse backgrounds, as well as addressing societal problems through their art. One of their most recent projects was a 300- meter underpass mural in Toronto addressing climate change and societyʼs impact on our planet.
Clandestinos Mural ‘Mending’ in Dufferin Neighbourhood, Winnipeg MB
Shalak Attack is a Canadian-Chilean visual artist dedicated to painting, muralism, spray paint, urban art, and canvas art. She fuses the spirit and the aesthetics of traditional South American muralism with contemporary graffiti & street art. Her artistic work and community art-reach is rooted in the social, humanitarian, environmental and cultural values she received from her Chilean family growing up across Canada.
Bruno Smoky has dedicated his life to visual art and works with graffiti, painting, illustration and tattoo. He began painting on walls with spraypaint in Brasilandia where he grew up, a precarious neighborhood of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The city of Sao Paulo has highly influenced his artistic expression with its urban cityscapes, diverse architecture, cultural pluralism, and divided social classes.
URBAN TALKS SPEAKER SERIES
ARTIST TALK AND ART MAKING
On September 9, 2016 artists Bruno Smoky and Shalak Attack hosted an artist talk and round table discussion with youth from around Winnipeg to discuss their creative process, art, politics and personal ideologies. The group shared their thoughts and discussed issues such as the environment, corporate involvement in global resources and energy, economic disparity, art and street culture, Indigenous peoples and cultural appropriation, love, life and more.
After the presentation and round circle, youth were invited to reflect on the topics of the day, and on the title and focus of the exhibit: “Merging”. Writing and sketching their thoughts on paper helped to translate the youth’s reaction to Bruno and Shalak’s work. After having time to work independently to put their ideas on paper, a second sharing circle took place where each participant was invited to present their ideas. During this time of sharing, common themes were identified and the group separated into pairs whose ideas intersected.
These pairs merged their concepts together and collaborated to produce the paintings you see here. The sketches and words on the wall are a record of their process. These works are a direct response to the Merging Exhibit, but are also personal expressions of their creators. They speak to the collaborative process and to the power of art to tell a story and demonstrate perspective, giving youth a powerful voice through visual means.
This work will be on display for the duration of Merging. After the conclusion of Merging, the work will be moved and put on display at the Forks, in downtown Winnipeg. In this space, the perspective and voice of the youth participants will be given an additional, more publicly-presented opportunity to resonate with a wider audience.
MERGING: The exhibit Merging takes the viewer through a lucid dream that contemplates our current situation on our Earth, our Home.