Straight outta Lisbon: Bordalo II

Target has just turned me on to Bordalo II, an artist in Lisbon who is doing some of the coolest pieces I’ve seen this fall. There are a lot of people messing around with found materials and spraycans and that sort of stuff, but for some unexplainable reason Bordalo II stands out to me. Maybe it’s just that he’s not well known outside of Portugal, but he’d probably already have a nice career carved out for himself in London with this sort of work, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than that. He’s taking pretty standard “urban art” techniques and actually doing something interesting with them, as well as pushing found materials further than most. Here is some work from his recent show at Montanta’s Lisbon gallery, Turning the ordinary into original. Target has more images on his blog.

Photos courtesy of Target

Escif’s next solo show: Against The Wall

This Friday, Barcelona’s Montana Gallery will be opening Escif‘s second solo show. In April, Escif was at Pictures on Walls for Around The Wall. Continuing on that theme, this new show is titled Against The Wall. His show at POW was a big hit, and I think we can expect more awesomeness from Escif this week in Barcelona.

Here’s a teaser of some of the work at Against The Wall:

One thing that surprised me at Around The Wall was Escif’s conceptual video art. Looks like there will be more of those videos in Barcelona, as he’s posted this video on YouTube as a teaser for Against The Wall: