Add Fuel’s art cleverly reinterprets the language of the Portuguese ‘Azulejo‘ ceramic tile. His vector-based designs and stencil-based street art interventions offer a fresh urban twist to the traditional tile design. Look a little closer and they reveal a graffiti cartoon style illustration, impressive complexity and a masterful attention to detail.

Add Fuels new designs of the Azulejo tile closes the gap between contemporary urban art and traditional tile painting, and we can’t get enough of it!

Add Fuel. Photo Credit Hugo Moura.

GraffitiStreet

What motivated you to pursue an artistic career, how and when did it all start?

Add Fuel

I’ve always felt that my mind didn’t quite perceive the world in a “standard” way and since I was a kid that I love drawing, I’m guessing because of this, I always knew I wanted to do something creative, I’ve always wanted to tell my stories, in the way I see the world.
A couple of years went by and I didn’t follow with my drawing passion professionally but I did get a university degree in graphic design and then worked for a quite some time as a graphic designer. For quite some time I don’t really define myself as a graphic designer considering I haven’t worked as such for the past ten years, but drawing was something I never stopped doing and back in 2003 I started to take on some freelance jobs as an Illustrator. A couple years after that I decided to go fulltime with my illustration work. I created a very specific style and universe which later started to explore in more artistic ways.

Add Fuel. Photo Credit Hugo Moura.

GraffitiStreet

You painted a wall in your home town of Cascais last year, what was the graffiti/ street art scene like when you were growing up in the city?

Add Fuel

Yes, I did. Apart from the not so legal and institutionalized works, I have participated for the last three years in “Muraliza”, the mural festival of my home town, Cascais, a steeped in history coastal town near Lisbon.
So, sort of halfway between Cascais and Lisbon, there’s the city of Caravels, a super nice and coastal city, surf spot but also considered as one of the cradles of the graffiti scene in Portugal, with the PRM Crew back in the 90s. These guys they were awesome, amazing style and colours (and I’m proud to be friends with a couple of them nowadays). So yeah, these guys were a super strong influence for me as a teenager. I even did a couple of years of bombing, but I quickly understood that letters were not my strongest! You gotta know your place!

Add Fuel, Muraliza Street Art Festival 2014. Photo Credit Rui Gaiola

Add Fuel, Muraliza Street Art Festival 2014. Photo Credit Rui Gaiola

GraffitiStreet

How did you first become interested with the Portuguese tin-glazed ceramic Azulejo?

Add Fuel

Back in 2007, I was invited to do a project in my home town of Cascais. They had big canvases covering walls around the city centre and they wanted to print some of my illustration work in a large scale. I really wanted to do something that would translate the city’s (and my own) legacy and history and I also wanted to do something that would identify myself as Portuguese, a person part of a culture.
At the time, after some rejected ideas and some research about traditional techniques, I incorporated my illustration in a simple pattern and used the 17th century blue and yellow colour scheme. I liked it a lot and I really felt I needed to explore and develop this theme further.I then checked out some ceramic techniques and got a few machines for my studio to make tiles. This is when I felt I had to put my work up on the streets. I kept exploring that area using the ceramic tiles to create several limited editions but I also started delving into the stencil technique onto the walls. These days I’ve been working on stencil works, murals and ceramics and I feel like I need to explore even more techniques, but studio time is shorter than I wish.

Add Fuel, First Stencil. Photo Credit Hugo Moura.

GraffitiStreet

Portugal has truly adopted this artwork into its culture, was it only natural for you create something fresh within this art form/ medium?

Add Fuel

I think that the process was something natural for me yes. Tiles have always been a part of my culture. From the more artistic ceramic panels, to invitation figures, hunting and equestrian panels to the classical patterned building façades, this is something that is present in Portuguese culture. As I mentioned before, the process of merging my own drawing universe with the tile aesthetic was something that just felt right, the result was super satisfying and I felt that I needed to explore that path. Ten years later, here we are.

Add Fuel, ‘INVENTORY: Memory’, gel ink on ceramic. Photo Credit Add Fuel

GraffitiStreet

You work with repeating periodic patterns, which previous tile masters have influenced you?

Add Fuel

I have a lot of influences but I don’t have a specific inspiration, I gather resources for my work from the elements that are more present in my life. I’m a big gamer, sci-fi and horror fan, I like tattoos, street and contemporary art. So, I guess all this things mix in my brain and come out through my hand, in my drawings. Patterns is something I’ve always enjoyed. There’s something super satisfying in the rhythm and order of repetition (and also in the deconstruction of those two).

Add Fuel, ‘AZ203 Part of a Vase’, high temperature paint on tile and cross stitch embroidery. Photo Credit Add Fuel

GraffitiStreet

Do you feel your designs close the gap between contemporary urban art and traditional tile painting?

Add Fuel

If that seems to happen it’s not up to me to make that judgement. What I try to do is to work with tradition, culture and heritage as something that is present, within us as people part of a civilization with history, something that’s “underneath” each wall of our cities but, something that can also be seen as not only a strong past but an adaptable present (and future maybe?).

Add Fuel, ‘AZ RSML: DISRUPTION 02’, gel ink on ceramic. Photo Credit Add Fuel

Add Fuel, ‘AZ RSML: DISRUPTION 02’, gel ink on ceramic. Photo Credit Add Fuel

GraffitiStreet

When did you start using stencils as a tool and taking your designs to the wall?

Add Fuel

Initially I started to use ceramics as a medium to put my work on the streets. I got some machines to my studio and once I started to make tiles I figured I need to put them outside, because for me, tiles live on the street. So I started doing night runs and putting little panels up around Lisbon, Cascais and into the cities I travelled. I got some attention with that sort of interventions, so I was invited to do a larger wall. Back to the drawing board and the solution was stencil. I could (and do) adapt my clean drawing style to stencil work easily. Nowadays I use a mix of stencil and freestyle painting.

Add Fuel, Street Art Mural, Brick Lane, Shoreditch, London 2017. Photo credit Jose Pando Lucas

GraffitiStreet

Like the Azulejo tile, simple geometric shapes were replaced with more ornate decoration and story telling, how has your style evolved over the years?

Add Fuel

I want to believe that I’m making my work simpler, less layered and more direct. I feel that I’m pushing more in the direction of pattern and element composition as opposite to the more intricate, super layered and complex drawings/stencils I was doing a few years ago, but in reality this has proven to be a difficult task. I love details, I love to tell stories within stories. But there are quite a lot of things I still want to explore; such as super sized “tiles” and big figurative elements popping out of patterned compositions to name a few. So many ideas so little time, right?

Add Fuel, ‘Comvida’ MURO Festival, Lisbon, Portugal 2016. Photo Credit Rui Gaiola

GraffitiStreet

There are countless wonderful examples of these beautiful tiles across Portugal. Is there a certain place/ building that has inspired and influenced you?

Add Fuel

Azulejos and patterns are all around, that’s true. I’m constantly photographing every pattern with my phone when walking around in Portugal (sadly it’s happening less and less because I have now collected so many!). There’s not actually one place that I see as a favourite, but a lot of places actually. Just the other day I discovered and old water font in Paço de Arcos with beautiful unique figure tiles. So well as with all in life, it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open and your mind focused and you’ll discover beautiful things.

Add Fuel, ‘AZ115 More Than Metal’, Muraliza Street Art Festival. Photo Credit Rui Gaiola

GraffitiStreet

How much does your art affect your everyday life? What is your typical day?

Add Fuel

It’s difficult to describe a typical day. I like routines but I don’t have many, my days are always different. From studio days working on tiles, to entire days painting, drawing, packing artwork for shipping, working on stencils, meetings with clients, video shooting, photo shooting, photo editing… never a boring day. At nights I try to just chill and get on my game console or watch a film. The way that art affects my everyday life? It’s constantly present and It’s very rare to have a day off. But being an artist is not a 9 to 5 job with weekends off, so I don’t complain. At all.

Add Fuel, Studio. Photo Credit Add Fuel.

GraffitiStreet

You have been able to travel the world with your skills as an artist. How do different cities/ environments influence your artwork/ design?

Add Fuel

When I travel to paint outside of Portugal I try to do some research and adapt my work into the culture, like I did in England, Norway, Scotland or Tunisia. I didn’t work my (I would say already signature) white and blue colours there but tones used in their local culture, this way local people could identify themselves with the work I do. Sometimes this is really complicated or impossible to achieve, so I find another way around to tell the story I want to tell.
Anyway, it’s sort of a sensitive issue to work with other people’s cultural elements, but luckily, I have never had any negative feedback about my vision. Fortunately it’s been the other way around and it’s been well received.

Add fuel, Nuart Aberdeen Street Art Festival 2017. Photo Credit Ian Cox

GraffitiStreet

When you stop and take a closer look at your designs they reveal a secret creative story with an attention to detail, how long does it take you to come up with your design? Describe the creative process.

Add Fuel

My drawings take quite a long time from beginning to end. I do a lot of research first, I need to think about the story I want to tell and what elements to use, but also how to make them work together in a way that they look like something that they are not. This is the tricky part. I like to trick people’s minds into thinking that they are looking at the traditional thing and not an “updated” version of the original element/pattern.
I draw everything by hand first, then scan, then apply colour in the computer for tests and mock-ups, then if it’s going into a stencil I need to have it vectorized for cutting (this also makes it easier to create multi-layered stencils). If it’s going to be hand painted into a tile, it goes into another process. It’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding.

Add Fuel, ‘AZ32’, 2012. Photo Credit Diogo Machado

GraffitiStreet

Is there anywhere in the world that you would love to visit and paint?

Add Fuel

Last year I was twice in the USA to paint and I loved it. It’s definitely a place I want to go and visit more for sure (to paint and/or just to visit). I would also like to paint in Greece. Greece has a super rich culture and history, I think it would be a really nice challenge for my work.

Add Fuel, 352Walls Gainesville. Photo Credit Iryna Kanishcheva

GraffitiStreet

You have collaborated with many artists, such as Samina and Bosoletti, is there an artist on your wish list? and why?

Add Fuel

No, not really. These collaborations are most of the time something that just happens. I really love to collaborate with other artists because most of the times it forces my mind to think in a different way. It’s really stimulating.

Add Fuel and Bosoletti, Cascais, 2015. Photo Credit Rui Gaiola

GraffitiStreet

We recently saw you in London for festival Iminente, then painting in Croatia, whats next on the cards for you?

Add Fuel

It’s been a crazy (good) year. Many good things going on. After Croatia I did one wall in Belém, Lisbon for the Vicente’17 project. Then I was in Stavanger, not for Nuart Festival, but during Nuart, for a mural in Stavanger Airport, produced by the nice people behind Nuart. Next is Lisbon again for quick mural and then I have other projects until the end of the year. Alongside all these, I have a permanent ceramic mural of about 150 square meters being installed in one of Lisbon’s main avenues. One of the biggest and more challenging projects I have ever done (and also one of those projects that just fills your chest with joy). More news on that one soon!

Add Fuel, ‘Remember Your Roots’, IMINENTE Festival, Brick Lane, Shoreditch, London 2017. Photo credit Jose Pando Lucas

GraffitiStreet

Whats your favourite motivational quote that keeps the fire alive?

Add Fuel

“Do something with your life that makes you happy” by me. Or that one “Do something you love and you will never work another day in your life“, by… I don’t know…

Add Fuel, Paris, France, Photo Credit Daniel Eime.

The Azulejo tile has been an important medium for Portuguese artistic expression for more than five hundred years, and its life line continues with artist Add Fuel who cleverly reinterprets the Azulejo for the 21st Century.

There is a museum in Portugal dedicated to the tile art history called the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, expect to see this talented portugese artist donning the walls in the not so distant future, making Add Fuel one of the tile masters of our time … and that excites us!