The Next Generation: Felipe Pantone
Part 4 of our series on incredible new street artists that get an invisible hand from those that came before. See our previous pieces on SAMO/Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Keith Haring, and yesterday’s piece on Amara Por Dios. And check back tomorrow for more.
One of major criticism of the current street art scene is that a lot of the work is too derivative and too similar-looking. Not when it comes to Felipe Pantone. Based in Valencia, the Argentinian-Spanish artist who said he first started doing graffiti when he was 12, has developed a highly recognizable style that combines ultramodern, geometric patterns with typography, pixels, and other bugged out artistic elements that bend your mind a little without the assistance of mind-altering substances.
His murals range in size from small scale to the enormously large, covering massive walls and the entire facades of buildings. His graffiti alter ego, PANT, is equally impressive, and creates pieces that look like they belong in a Mars colony.
Pantone doesn’t just relegate his work to one type of surface though, and has applied his crisp abstractions to motorcycles and race cars, which seems about right, as his art does seem to exude speed.
Born of the digital age, Pantone creates his designs on a computer and then brings them into the analog world with paint, but in an interview, he does admit to being very open to adopting new technology to produce art, if he can afford it. “Painting them myself is still cheaper than printing, and probably faster too,” he said. “But, I have no qualms about changing my process in the future if I think printing or hiring is a better option. I think musicians really embrace the fact that they don’t have to play every instrument, but just direct their compositions from their computers. Et voilà.”
He also said that “I hear often that my art is futuristic. I think my work belongs to the present.”
