As I mentioned a week or so back I was recently in Rotterdam, Holland for the street art awards and also the various goings on at Pow Wow! Rotterdam. It was a pretty hectic weekend running about the city getting to the all the events and also doing some regular hunting. And of course I’m an idiot and booked my accommodation eight miles outside of the city (and only for one night and not two) adding to my running around!
One of the events Pow Wow! had running on the Saturday was 20 cans, 30 vans. This event brought thirty artists together in a small car park near the larger murals to paint thirty vans of varying sizes.
The funny thing I find about going to these events outside of my ‘home’ city is how many new artists I find. I feel I have become extremely knowledgeable about the artists in Barcelona but every city has hundreds of writers and artists. Coming to these events shows how little you really know but it’s a great education at the same time.
I’m not going to write about all thirty vans by the way because no one is interested in reading 2000 words from me about anything, even street art. Also I have no idea which artist did each particular van. Only some of the artists had info as to who they were and I have forgotten some of the ones who told me who they were… sorry about that!
I have however added links to all the participating artists at the bottom if you want to check them out and of course some other photos from the event also.
Ok so first up is this van created by Dutch artist and Barcelona resident Ivesone. Ives is a good friend of mine and I travelled with him and Sokar down from Amsterdam in the morning to come to the event. Ives must have had one of the smaller vans on site but he made the most of it, creating this fragmented portrait piece. The piece is from a photo by Lee Jeffries of a homeless person. Ives told me that he chose the colours based on the two sides of life. Brown for the real side and blue for the part where we dream of what we want from life.
This second van is by Gomad and was a personal highlight from the event. The artist was nice enough to put some paper in front of his van telling everyone who he was. Making my life easier! Gomad’s van features some sharp bold colours and an incredibly realistic eye. Unfortunately someone drove off in the van before I could shoot it completely finished!
Nash is a bit of a legend in Holland judging by the amount of people standing around his van all day watching him work. His van is a row of faces all squished up and pulling differing poses. The way he’s done it makes it almost look like it’s one large mushed up character from a horror movie. And I love it.
I met Danny Rumbl at Gargar Festival earlier this year so it was nice to catch up and say hello again. The Rotterdam native’s work is all over the city and he also painted a larger mural for Pow Wow the week before the event. Rumbl went for a wacky races theme with his van with Dick Dasterdly being the main focal point. The artists style is of over-exaggerating the features of the characters he creates. This fits perfectly with Dasterdly and Muttley and their giant grins and huge chins.
Here is the list of the other participating artists if you wish to check out some of their work from the event or just their work in general. CES53, Hipster Skulls, Ilse Weisfelt, Jake, Joren Joshua, Lempke, Mick La Rock, Mister, Neas, Oles, Ox Alien, Page 3, Pop Eye, Saïd Kinos, Srek, Stoog and Sunk.
I know what you mean abiout being out of your depth outside Barcelona. And as if to prove your point, I like the Rumbl piece because I have just written about him from his Upfest visit, as you know. Always building the knowledge. Great post.
100% true. If it wasn’t for you I’d come to Bristol and know about 2% of the artists which is quite incredible really when you think about Instagram and how much things we are exposed too.