Interview with PichiAvo

Posted by Donna on 27th December, 2015
Filed under: Interviews

GraffitiStreet caught up with Valencia based graffiti artist duo PichiAvo to find out more what’s behind their unique style, their highlights of the year 2015 and their first ever hand finished print titled ‘Perseus’.

GraffitiStreet

How did you first come about mixing graffiti with fine art as two artists with very different backgrounds?

P&A

It is the result of a process which has taken many years working on various concepts which has made us reach certain conclusions. Just over 2 years ago we came to this mix which is the combined result of everything we know.

Pichiavo – GraffitiStreet Launch – Blackall Street, London 2014

Pichiavo – piece inspired by the famous classical sculpture Adolf Gustav Vigeland

GraffitiStreet

Can you tell us what art studies you have done?

P&A

Our studies are all related to the arts, from fine arts to design, industrial and graphic. Studies that complement our work and make us a more open.

GraffitiStreet

What would you consider yourself to be. Fine artists, graffiti artists or street artists?

P&A

We are PichiAvo, we have fun doing what we do and labels do not define us, we leave that to the people, we focus on making art. It’s fun to play with those labels, so we invite people to define us, but maybe we make something that changes that definition. For sure it will be art! Or maybe not? :)

Pichiavo x 3F – Beginners Guide

GraffitiStreet

Can you explain us a bit more about the evolutionary process behind every new piece you create so that we can get a glimpse into your creative minds?

P&A

The process varies greatly if it’s a piece you do for the street, canvas, print or if it’s a commission … but more or less we always follow the same steps, we will analyse where the work will be placed, the concept behind the work, and the meaning behind it … and then we translate the work on paper, computer … looking for shapes and colours and all those things that helps us to define the art work. It is a team dialogue. It really depends on the work, there are some pieces that are born out of the spontaneity of the work and others are much more considered and planned.

Pichiavo ‘Escritor de Mares’ commission – Photo by GraffitiStreet.com

Pichiavo sketches

Pichiavo ‘Escritor de Mares’ commission – Photo by GraffitiStreet.com

Pichiavo @ Pixavi Festival

GraffitiStreet

What are the different challenges you are confronted with when painting murals in the street vs painting works for the gallery?

P&A

We have always tried to bring the wall to the canvas and canvas to the wall and more recently wall/canvas to print, the challenge may arise around the formats and sizes of the given piece but with the help of a combination of techniques that we use, we can work around these. Using a mixture of techniques, which include spray paints, collages, oil paints, acrylic paints, gold leaf … enables us to create artwork with different finishes which we feel enrich the work in situ. So now we think murals and gallery artworks are more or less the same for us, and the results are very similar.
Also a difference is that when you work in the street you have to know where you are, and think about the urban environment compared to canvas/print which is a different environment.

Pichiavo

Pichiavo ‘Escritor de Mares’ commission – Photo by GraffitiStreet.com

Pichiavo @ Pixavi Festival

GraffitiStreet

2015 has without any doubt been a very busy for you guys. What was the highlight of your year?

P&A

Each year is getting busier… this 2015 we have done interesting projects where we had fun, festivals like No Limit Boras where we did our wall so far, or the project for Wynwood Walls a place where you can find the most recognised in the world in one area as an open museum, and where they trust in our work to do a big project. In the studio/gallery area, one of our highlights was our new works that were presented for the GraffitiStreet ‘Underground’ show which was held earlier on this year in London. During this exhibition, we were able to showcase our new 2015 collection, a series which was painted with chromes, gold, silver and oil paints and which showed a more developed/matured style. At this show we also presented one of our sculptures using this same concept.

Pichiavo. Photo by Anders Kihl

Pichiavo

Pichiavo Mercurio

Pichiavo – Street Capture of Polyxena

Pichiavo

Pichiavo – Wall Protection

Pichiavo Titanesses

GraffitiStreet

You are releasing your first ever hand finished print 'Perseus'. What was the biggest challenge of bringing your work from the street to a print and can you take us through the process?

P&A

It has been a very challenging process because our works are very detailed and have a lot of depth; we use many colours and a lot shades and we didn’t want any of the details to be lost. As part of our journey we explored many different printing techniques. We wanted the idea of the print to be something powerful and elegant that would allow us to do something special to make every print unique. After months of experimenting, and a few visits to London, we chose the best idea that we felt would give that result and created the work on canvas which was then scanned by a high resolution art scanner flatbed which captured every single brushstroke and spray element down to the millimetre. From that point onwards, we colour matched colour by colour until we were satisfied and also tested with a variety of paper rags which gave us different results. In the end we opted for the more premium Hahnlemuhle 308gsm paper rag instead of Somerset 330gsm which gave us deeper tones and hence more depth within the print.
The choice of using 24 carat gold leaf instead of imitation gold leaf was also very important for the final result of the print as we wanted to achieve the best result. The art work and the fans who are buying this print truly deserve that.
We added further golden highlights to further enhance the ‘Perseus’ print making this a piece we are very proud of.

Pichiavo @ Pixavi Festival

pichiavo

Pichiavo Perseus Print Close-up

GraffitiStreet

Do you feel it's important to you as artists to leave a personal mark on every work you create?

P&A

For us producing prints is not our main work, we feel more comfortable with originals, where everything is unique for the people and it’s something personal, maybe it’s because we are new to the print scene … but the chance to hand finish each one of these prints makes it even better. It’s really close to our philosophy, so that’s why we decided to do it. Now we can really say that we had a lot of fun doing a print .. working with 24ct gold leaf reminds us to the Classical times, where all the artistic processes were a lot slower. It was also an excellent choice to give each print our touch, and during this beautiful process, we were working with 2 different gold paints, creating highlights which were applied by paint brush and which its brushstrokes carries the identity of the artist while further enhancing the print.

GraffitiStreet

What is the significance of the graffiti light bulb you use in all your work?

P&A

The bulb represents the idea, creativity … It’s a familiar element that everyone recognises and gradually with new technologies is disappearing despite attempts to maintain its place. We have been painting the bulb for many years in different styles, before we came to the graffiti bulb which defines our graffiti style, PichiAvo.

Pichi&Avo Sclater Street Wall piece

GraffitiStreet

What can we expect from you in 2016? Do you have any more shows or festivals lined up?

P&A

You never know what can happen in 2016, in 2015 we wanted to spend more time in the studio working and experimenting on new pieces and in the end we did not get as much as time as we thought we would have … we want to continue experimenting and creating new and better work because we feel we can give more but we will try to create a balance between that and all proposals we receive for shows and festivals. You can follow us on Facebook or Instagram if you want to stay updated with our latest works.

PichiAvo continue to bring excitement to the urban art scene with their fusion of fine art and graffiti and we are certainly blown away by their painting skills. We cannot wait to see what more awesomeness 2016 will bring from this very talented artist duo.

We hope you enjoyed the interview and have finished up with a selection of some of their best walls on the street!