BIO
Felipe Pantone
Born in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Felipe Pantone painted his first piece at the age of 12, and hasn't stopped ever since he discovered graffiti in a small town in the southeast of Spain. Years later he settled in Valencia, where he took part of the foundation of the notorious D.O.C.S team, famous for their smashing experiments with the alphabet. On the side, he kept developing a sort of daring avant-garde graffiti that led him to become a member of the legendary European crew Ultra Boyz.
Nowadays his name has been spread in many of the most important cities of the world and his unique glossy style keeps changing through various different influences, but still preserving the usual stamp of quality.
Felipe Pantone’s body of work spans from graffiti to kinetic art. Strong contrasts, vivid colors, effects, and the use of mixed medium and varied technique combine to impact strongly on the viewer. What really intrigues is not the striking nature of his work, but the artist’s journey to discover this aesthetic. We live in a time where more images are produced than can possibly be seen, and the impetus for an artist to stand out from the others is stronger than ever. Information flows at an exponentially increasing rate, a leitmotif recurrent in Felipe Pantone’s compositions, his hyperactivity, working methods and his constant traveling around the world.
Someone who aspires to do something important in art must understand the world and time they inhabit. Felipe Pantone understands perfectly.
INTERVIEW
How would you define the project that you undertook for TruckArtProject?
Basically I have used the two surfaces to carry out the two main things I do. On the one hand I have made an Opticromy that can fit in my most artistic side, applied in murals or in pieces of study, I find that the dynamism and effects it causes fit well on a moving surface. On the other hand I have made a piece, I have put PANT in legible letters and with elements that make the viewer want to read the name, that idea of graffiti: put your name where you see the most and reach as many people as possible.
In your case, how do the two sides of the truck work together?
Perhaps the interesting thing is that they do not dialogue, that in a way they turn their backs. Art or graffiti? I leave it there, although I do not worry too much about the answer.
What are the challenges of the project for you?
Perhaps the biggest challenge is that I came from Bilbao of another project and after finishing I ran to Paris to do a very big project. In short, I had to respond to several projects in distant places in a very fair time, in the end everything went very well.
How does this project fit into your trajectory and your discourse?
I had not painted a curator in a vehicle moving in the street, in London I painted a boat.
Some artists admit that they came in with a pre-existing idea that they had to modify, or that grew in other directions when faced with a canvas like this one. Was that the case for you?
More or less had the idea that on each face wanted to do a very different thing, but then when I got there and see it live I developed each face.
How did you approach the reception of a work like this, in which the spectator comes across it instead of seeking it out, and which doesn’t “circulate” through the usual art channels?
It can be something quite like when you paint a mural or a graffiti. There is often talk of a kind of democratization of art with graffiti or urban art, I think it is rather an imposition, like advertising, and that interests me a lot.
What about the fleeting nature with which it’s received?
This can give you a point, transience and change of location. You have a couple of rather elaborate surfaces moving through different points, people meet and tell you, that's what I like.
How did you approach the scale? Were you used to it?
I have painted on larger and smaller scales, perhaps the singular thing about this case is that it is halfway between the two.
What does this type of project offer you, and what do you think you bring to the project?
It is okay to participate in projects where there are artists that I like and also are friends. I also liked the idea of developing two different things in the same project with a specific meaning.
Why is a project like TruckArtProject interesting?
It is interesting that more things happen in Spain of this type, out there are happening all the time. In addition TruckArtProject plays with the trick of reaching many people.
Javier Díaz-Guardiola