Lying and on the brink of death, a senseless creature surrounded him and began to utter foolish words, soon more beasts of fierce colors and impossible shapes joined in; a serpent with crow’s feet, a donkey with wings and a tongue of fire, a coyote with sparrowhawks’ wings, spotted lizards with lion’s claws and horns, and so several more who in multitude joined voices and began to sing a single song that Peter’s mortal ears gradually understood: abje, al, albrej, Lebrija, lebrije, alebrija, alebrije, alebrije, alebrije… horrified and stunned Peter ran with all his might and when the lungs began to burn and the heart started to explode instead of beat, he staggered and with his fall the spirit returned to his body.
He drew air as he had not since birth and awoke from his dismal sleep. He was surrounded by his family, the burst ulcer had him very badly and yet he got up and tried to explain what he had found in the world of dreams. The words were not enough, they clumped together in his mouth and seemed to make no sense to the ears of those around him. Peter had an idea, took his working materials and spoke through the cardboard, thus releasing the first alebrije.
This happened many years ago in Oaxaca, but the national soil has the characteristic of being very fertile in creators. Now, when we visit the streets of Mexico, it is increasingly common to see artistic compositions reclaiming concrete walls by filling them with the tones of a particular artist. Within the Mexican urban art scene, one of the most prolific and interesting artists without a doubt is Curiot Tlapazotl whose work inevitably reminds me of the story of Pedro and makes me wonder what Curiot dreams of.
Native of Sahuayo Michoachán, also home to the Trino’s zombies and the tlahualiles, Favio Martinez, better known as Curiot, develops his works on the threshold of the oneiric and the real, between the pop and the surreal, developing to each stroke beasts charged with Mexican folklore in an adoption and symbolic reinterpretation unique and fascinating that, among other motivations, seek to infect viewers with the desire for creation, as a highly positive creative bacterium that counteracts and provides an emotion to contemporary citizens, zombified and
Settling for much of his life in Costa Mesa, United States, during the golden age of skateboarding, Curiot developed an affinity for drawing that quickly turned into love and returned to Mexico at the age of 19 to enter the Fine Arts faculty at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo where he began to develop his style, sometimes decomposed, sometimes fine, sometimes beastly, and sometimes delicate or intriguing, denotes the freedom he has managed to conquer in each stroke by tasting a personal style reminiscent of a remix among the bestiaries of Aloys Zötl with influences of the skate decks, the creatures of Mexican folklore, the dance of tlahualiles and some strokes of Carrigton.
Freedom is a dream and in the present day it seems that living from art is also a dream, but beyond recognition or success, Curiot’s work is one of the few discourses where it is clear that he lives in his art, under this scheme it is undeniable that Curiot shares a fragment of himself in each of his”cute” and curious” creatures, reaching from it an evocative capacity that immediately transports us to the dream world, where ideas flourish from the ashes, where the tlahualiles are monumental creatures that escape from the canvases and the animals fuse with their surroundings and delicately escape from the walls to steal an emotion from people to fight the abominable grey of the cities, to give us a little bit of dreams, a little something to remember.
Stretched out and on the verge of death, humanity rests in their homes, their cities or their streets, around them creatures made of air, earth, water, fire, leaves, animals and flowers abound in the world of dreams. To the imagination, their shapes become impossible to describe and it is not until the Curiot’s hand releases them with spray or brushes on a blank canvas of cloth or brick and they take possession of the space away from the dead and mundane, or at least that’s what Curiot Tlapazotl seems to dream.
The Creatures of Curiot Tlapazotl will be present in Querétaro during the Festival of Nine Urban Art Seawalls Water is One, from March 27 to April 17, 2018 in Querétaro.
You can learn more about Curiot Tlpapazotl’s work at:
https://www.facebook.com/El.Curiot/
More photos from the Stills agency:
https://www.facebook.com/TheStillsAgency/
#pangeaseed #seawalls #seawallsmx #waterisone #artivism#paintforapurpose #protectwhatyoulove #nuevearteurbano #streetart#transgraffiti #transgrafiti #elaguaesuna #culturalfreedom Este festival es realizado gracias al apoyo de Gobierno del Estado de QueretaroSecretaría de Educación del Estado de Querétaro UAQ Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, COBAQ, Pinturas Osel Querétaro, Comisión Estatal de Aguas Querétaro MAPEI de México TMAQ Carranza 50 La Glotonería RMX radio Grupo Imagen Digital