This summer, I took at trip to Brooklyn. Most of the trip was for visiting universities, so the best part was the break I took to check out Ad Hoc Art and wander around that part of Brooklyn to look at street art. I saw work from Swoon, Broken Crow, Gaia, Chris Stain, and many others, but the highlight was finding something new. That something was Robots Will Kill. RWK is a group of artists from New York, most commonly consisting of Veng, Col, and Chris, but also including ECB.
Their work was something completely different from what I was used to seeing.
Veng’s unique portrait style isn’t photorealistic like Case or Akut, it isn’t painterly brush strokes like Matt Small or Adam Neate, and it isn’t a cartoon. It’s something all his own. Plus the birds he does are totally different yet equally good.
Col’s 3d wildstyle graffiti is bringing the genre into the 21st century with his unique flairs. I’m not usually drawn to graffiti, but Col is one of those rare exceptions
Chris’ style is more like illustration than anyone else in the group, and his characters help to bring a bit of fun the some of the work.
ECB looks like he’s taking charcoal drawing styles to the street, and as you can see in the above photo, they look fantastic.
I’d be excited coming across any one of these artists’ pieces on the street, and the fact that these guys work so well together is just a bonus. I’m not sure how they decided to start working together, but like Hera and Akut, mixing these completely different styles seems to be working very well for RWK.
