Art Basel Miami 2016

During Art Basel 2016 I painted the largest mural in Wynwood at 101 NE 28th Street which can be seen from 29th Street right across from where the Art Miami Show was at.

This 30 foot high by 60 feet wide mural was my greatest challenge to date. The enormity of the undertaking is what I had been waiting for since I left Wynwood after Art Basel 2015. I began on Black Friday, November 25th and each day under the hot Miami sun was no picnic, nor a vacation by any means. Once again I stepped into the “8th” dimension” or in other words it’s what I call “the zone”. The moment at hand took many months in the making to prepare for. My mission was to re-create one of my acrylic masterpieces from my greatest body of canvas work called The Table Series.

The painting I chose for Art Basel is titled, “Nanny’s Kitchen” and when I painted it I challenged myself to finish it in 1 month’s time and I did just that. I selected Nanny’s Kitchen because it has a complex composition of people and objects on the kitchen table but the central reason was to spread the message of how important ‘the table’ is with bringing family together. The Table Series is based off of my family and this is what inspired my street art graphic in 2006. The Table Series Logo is an image of a family around a table, but not only my family, the logo symbolizes the universal family. The family that breaks bread together stays together and this notion of the table as a the glue that keeps us close is very important for children to experience because it helps them to grow up feeling secure and confident from a high-elf-esteem knowing that they have a close family unit who supports and protects them which causes children to feel safe. With that awareness of assurance children feel free to become more outgoing and not afraid to fail.

I always envisioned a Table Series painting as a mural and this was more than just a wall because of it’s colossal size that spans the entire side of a Wynwood warehouse. It was a what I consider a rite of passage for me to prove that when your healthy, you are wealthy and anything can be accomplished if you dare to dream big and not afraid to work hard at it. I love to paint large murals and this one is even bigger than The Grampa mural I painted for the City of Yonkers, NY in 2015. Just as The Grampa with Nanny’s Kitchen I made sure to copy the original painting with the same colors from the face to the cigarette butts I kept it’s original integrity

I began buffing (priming) the background color at 3pm and finished at 1030pm. I took a break for 1 hour and outlined the composition at 1130pm until 6am, I went to sleep and by 1pm I was filling in the colors. Nanny’s Kitchen took 11 days for me to complete. During the creation of this mural I achieved a new record for non-stop Fumeroizing which was 16 hours in total, but that was nothing because that record was quickly surpassed 3 days later which was actually my last day painting the mural. On my last day from Sunday at 12noon I began with the goal to not stop until the mural was done. I challenged myself to a muralathon and painted straight through the afternoon, evening and morning and finally finished at 1pm Monday the next day. I painted for 25 hours straight because Fumeroism is not just an art style, it is a life style and what is life for if not to push yourself to see how far the human spirit will go and it builds character and profoundly strenghtens my ambition with the philosophy that sky is not the limit but to be limitless is .

I also was a part of a group show of New York artists called New York F#ckn City at Macaya Gallery in Wynwood. There I exhibited 3 paintings, of Biggie Smalls 40”x40”, Marylin Monro 24”x30” and “Coffee, Cake & Booze from The Table Series.

I couldn’t really tell you how Art Basel was this year because I was pretty busy painting the largest 1 person mural this year and I felt as though I was on an island far away from everything. That’s how it gets when you’re a slave to a wall but a master when it’s done.

What made Art Basel fun for me this year was seeing my family from the Bronx and Jersey come down, my friends and the support of the people who follow my work. I want to thank you all for stopping by whether briefly or for a long chill, I appreciate your good energy.

Thank you to Charm City Streets for the article and pictures