Art: SpY takes urban art to a whole new level

SpY is an artist taking street-level communication to a new level. Stemming from simple observations he makes while out and about in the city, he creates large-scale installations and paintings that challenge society’s accepted passivity, encouraging active viewing from passers by and transcending the limitations of graffiti that we’ve become so used to seeing on a daily basis.

Examples range from wrapping a police car in cling film and trimming the ivy on an outside wall into a perfect circle, to building a pyramid out of pedestrian safety barriers in front of a contemporary art museum and popping 10 buckets with holes cut into them over the faucets of a public water fountain. The results are funny without being sarcastic, and poignant without being aggressive in their criticism.

As his website explains… “His work involves the appropriation urban elements through transformation or replication, commentary on urban reality, and the interference in its communicative codes. The bulk of his production stems from the observation of the city and an appreciation of its components, not as inert elements but as a palette of materials overflowing with possibilities.”