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From Joaquin Phoenix to Brigitte Bardot: the Galician who leads Hollywood stars to the abandoned walls of Malaga

2021-05-03T17:02:30.651Z


Guillermo Paz makes portraits of international and national musicians and actors on remote walls of the Andalusian city to work with tranquility. He has recently honored the late Quique San Francisco with a graffiti that revolutionized social networks


Just four years ago Guillermo Paz landed in Torremolinos from Ferrol, leaving behind the Galician clouds and greeting the Andalusian sun.

"The Mediterranean luminosity has opened up a palette of colors that I was unaware of," says this 34-year-old Galician graffiti artist who signs his work as Nesui.src.

His specialty is portraits. Among the last ones he has signed is a tribute to the recently deceased Quique San Francisco, in Benalmádena, which went viral. However, until reaching him, he has developed a catalog of actors, actresses and references of urban music on the walls of the entire Costa del Sol. From Joaquin Phoenix to Anthony Hopkins or Jennifer Connelly. Also a Brigitte Bardot who, by municipal commission, returned to Torremolinos in the form of a mural almost seven decades after filming

The Jewelers of the Moonlight there

in 1954.

Paz peeked into graffiti as a teenager.

He picked up his first spray cans when he was 15 or 16 years old and has not put them down since.

First he did it as a hobby.

In fact, he studied something that had nothing to do with it: Senior technician in animation of physical and sports activities.

“But I have done a lot of research on art on my own.

And I spend the day watching tutorials and things to learn, especially how color works, ”he says.

A decade ago he began to do his first commissioned works.

In 2016, he dropped everything to pursue his passion one hundred percent.

"In general, they are people who, in one way or another, I admire, respect or value," explains the artist about how he decides which characters to portray.

Its first clients were small neighborhood establishments with humble ideas and, little by little, it has grown into other sectors. In February, for example, he intervened on the walls of the Malaga public school Ardira and recently he has photographed Josh Bridges, a CrossFit athlete, at the All4One gym in El Pinillo, in Torremolinos. Further, he has illustrated swimming pools in villas on the Costa del Sol, children's rooms or lounges of single-family homes. Of everything. "Each person asks you for something totally different," he emphasizes.

A lover of impressionism and landscaping, he is a good movie buff. The influence of the seventh art is noticeable in his work, as evidenced by the many celebrities that he has transferred to different places in Benalmádena, Fuengirola, Torremolinos or Malaga capital. Steve Buscemi, Robert de Niro, Roberto Benigni, Denzel Washington, Tommy Lee Jones or Edward Norton are some of the recent portraits. "In general, they are people who, in one way or another, I admire, respect or value," the artist emphasizes. Inspiration is taking stills from movies you like or photos of celebrities where the light is right where you are interested.

“I like to try, learn and evolve.

So I am choosing images that have some kind of lighting that I want to know more about and that is how I am improving, "adds Paz, who decided to honor Quique San Francisco shortly after his death because he considers himself a great follower of the so-called quinqui cinema and has seen a lot of his movies.

The author also takes many references from urban culture.

Among the works of recent months there is room for Kobe Bryant, rappers Jay-z and Talib Kweli or the musical duo Mobb Depp.

Also for Camarón or Paco de Lucía in the galleries of the España shopping center, next to the Torremolinos Plaza de la Unión Europea.

Paz takes inspiration from movie stills that she likes or photographs of celebrities where the light is right at the point that interests her.

Most of his works are made on walls of abandoned places or secluded walls. This is the case of a passage under the A-7 highway and near the Buddhist stupa of Benalmádena. The artist is aware that they are not very accessible spaces where his work goes unnoticed. "But I do not care, then you can see them on social networks," he says, to later explain that if at first he requested municipal permits to intervene in more traveled places ("they worked as a showcase, to make me known") now choose those remote areas to work with peace of mind.

Paz hopes that he will soon be able to take the step of portraying unknown people. "That could be one of my next projects," he anticipates. The conditional appears in his words because as graffiti is his profession, he must dedicate many hours of work commissioned by private companies, public administrations or individuals. Some of these jobs are done with local graffiti artists like Lalone. "In Malaga there are artists with a lot of quality, such as Hide Two, Elalfil or Senjuan", he assures, that is why he criticizes that urban art projects such as the one developed years ago in the Soho neighborhood, near the historic center of the city of Malaga, do not count on them.

“Graffiti is a fad for many cities. Before they passed us and now we are a solution to solve some problems of the municipality when painting in certain places. The only thing that I hope they will soon see this as something else, as the art that it is, ”he says.

The Benalmádena City Council is one of those that has opted for the Galician, whom they met after the uproar that the Quique San Francisco mural created on social networks. “We really liked his initiative and decided to call him. He is very committed, humble and very creative, ”says the mayor of the municipality, Víctor Navas, who has offered Paz different areas of the town to choose which ones to intervene. "We want to vindicate urban art, the talent of the people who reside here and, also, underline the modern and avant-garde identity of Torremolinos," explains José Ortiz, Torremolinos councilor, who hired the graffiti artist in the summer of 2019 to carry out a mural of the actress Brigitte Bardot in the Plaza Costa del Sol.

The municipality also promoted a work by Frank Sinatra and intends to complete an art route in the coming months with portraits of other celebrities linked to the Malaga town such as John Lennon or Ava Gardner. It will be Paz himself who will carry out the work of the American actress. In Torremoilnos, the artist also developed a long wall on Avenida Carlota Alessandri with numerous reasons to support the LGTBI + community. One of the fragments, a kiss between two girls, was vandalized with black paint in December 2019. “Let my work annoy me, because I'm used to it. What I have worse is the lack of respect for this group, "he said in a

Torremolinos Televisión

program

last fall.

Recently, the Municipality of Villanueva del Trabuco, a municipality in the north of the province of Malaga with just over 5,000 inhabitants, has had its services for two murals. "We liked Guillermo's work very much, although it was not easy to find the design, in which we wanted to make a nod to the older people of the town and their work in the fields," says Vanesa Luque, Councilor for Culture and Tourism. A portrait next to the fountain of the hundred pipes gave the solution. Luque assures that the final work attracted young people, adults and the elderly, "something very difficult in a town." For this reason, they decided to call Guillermo again to make a tribute to rural women in an old light transformer. “Now many of the people who come to town do it to see these graffiti:they have served to beautify the town and as a tourist attraction ”, concludes the municipal official. Nesui.src is on a roll.

Mural of the American actor Samuel L. Jackson, in Torremolinos, Málaga. Torremolinos town hall

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-05-03

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