A BURST OF COLOUR
Spanish muralists Avo, left, and Pichi — known collectively as PichiAvo — are about half-way through painting the city’s largest street-art mural at 10331 106 St.
Rust Magic International Street Mural Festival has done it again: another world-famous Spanish art crew is turning a blank Edmonton wall into a thing of beauty, this time setting a record for the city.
On a patchwork quilt of street art writing styles going back to 1970s New York, PichiAvo’s depiction of a statue of Greek mythology ’s Nike — goddess of speed, strength and victory — is winged and driving a team of horses. When completed, it will be the largest street art mural in Edmonton at 12 metres by 35 metres — 40 feet by 115 feet in imperial measure.
The sprawling artwork at 10331 106 St. is nearly twice the size of Okuda San Miguel’s mural, Welcome to the Black Rainbow Lake, recently completed in Old Strathcona, and nearly as large as Norman Yates’ masterpiece, West and North, on Education North at the University of Alberta.
This is the 40th Rust Magic mural to go up on Edmonton walls since the festival launched in 2016, and the fourth of 10 organizers Trevor Peters and Annaliza Toledo have planned for this season. Already finished are walls by Okuda, Edmonton’s Jill Stanton at Apple Dental Care on 124 Street, and Calgary ’s Nasrimba on the side of Habesha African Market on 107 Avenue.
Next week, a new mural will kick off by Vancouver’s Xochitl Leal on the side of Acajutla (11302 107 Ave.), while another by Nelson “Dedos” Garcia will live at 10148 82 Ave.
PichiAvo is part of a world-renowned Spanish wave of contemporary street artists from Spain, including Okuda, Aryz and Xolaka, to cherry pick just a few — following wild trails blazed by Goya, Joan Miro, Picasso and Dali.
Other Spanish works on Rust Magic walls in Edmonton are by Xena — a.k.a. Fatima De Juan — on the Army and Navy downtown, and three separate works by Kram and Eledu up on Lingnan, Maki Maki and Quasar Bottle Depot.
Pichi, 41, and Avo, 32, were speaking with a pair of enthusiastic teenagers on bikes as I walked up to the monumental work — Avo handled the interview while Pichi keeps working on the wall, a twoweek project they ’re halfway done as of Monday.
The Valencian explains why they chose Nike — who the Romans called Victoria.
“It’s a sculpture many cities in Europe have, and it represents victory, something positive. There’s a lot of movement,” Avo said.
“For this, we changed our palette of colours up a bit, we wanted to try something different.
“We’re imagining the wall in win- ter, with everything white, these colours will pop out, so I hope it’s good,” he said with a laugh. “I hope we can come back and see it!”
One of the striking aspects of the mural are its actual and metaphorical layers, mixing thousands of years of classical sculpture with non-institutionalized street art, a gesture lending credibility to both.
“We started as graffiti writers, and all the influence in Europe came from New York — that kind of style is in the background here,” Avo said. “You can find wild style and throw-up, different styles from France.
“And then all the Roman and Greek ruins are an influence in Spain, of course.”
The work echoes international graffiti styles across time and space as a loose sort of graffiti-writing Rosetta Stone.
“We travel a lot, so we get a lot of influence from different cities. We try to express all we know.
“I think that’s why people connect with (our work) — people see styles they know, older people recognize the classical art. We try not to separate the art, but bring everything together.”
Nike — daughter of goddess Styx and titan Pallas — has a complicated series of stories surrounding her, but, Avo said, “We don’t want to purely represent a myth — we like it when people read about the figures on their own. Thinking is important.”
The mural is being funded in part by an online campaign. Go check out the art at 103 Avenue and 106 Street, chat with the artists, and if you want to support it, head to gofundme.com/pichiavoedmonton. Pitch in $500 and your name goes up on the mural. As of Monday, Rust Magic raised $5,500 of the $25,000 goal.
The pair paint everything freehand. During the first week, Pichi and Avo faced an unexpected challenge. Avo said while they wear masks to protect themselves from inhaling paint, smoky skies from B.C. wildfires complicated the process.
“It was hard because the colours are not the same from day to day — but a new experience as well.”
Avo said he’d heard about Edmonton through some of the artists Rust Magic has brought here.
“It’s our first time in Canada — first contact. We heard (in Edmonton) there were a bunch of artists we know, and we saw Okuda’s from a distance.
“But first we have to concentrate on our wall,” he said, tapping a nozzle and getting back to it.