RABI | |
---|---|
Born | David Emanuel Mordechai Torres November 30, 1984 (age 39) |
Known for | Fine art, sculpture, muralism, photography, typography, videography |
Website | rabitowing |
RABI (born David Emanuel Mordechai Torres in 1984) is a first generation American [1] visual artist of Puerto Rican and Polish descent from Los Angeles, California. [2] He is known for being part of the artist collective, CYRCLE. RABI's works can be seen in public and private collections including that of Shepard Fairey, Ari Emanuel, Sean Combs, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, MOCA Detroit, Bishop Museum in Hawaii, MGM Grand in Las Vegas, The Art of Elysium,the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans, and the Urban Nation Museum Berlin. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
RABI's works stem from his early life as a graffiti writer, skateboarder and muralist. [9] [10] [11] Through skateboarding and graffiti, RABI began practicing art in public spaces, as well as capturing his personal world through video and photography. [12] Themes of contradiction, duality, and sociopolitical philosophy become visible throughout RABI's work. In 2009 RABI co-founded the art collective CYRCLE along with David Leavitt and Devin Liston (Liston left in 2012), [13] which gained international notoriety and allowed for him to take his love for public installation to a worldwide audience. [14]
He spent a full decade building CYRCLE while growing his skills in video, design, photography, painting and sculpture. During this time he worked throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America. [15] While working with CYRCLE, RABI collaborated with artists, brands and non-profits including, HBO, Uber, Pharrell, TED Prize winner- JR, [16] James Lavelle, Chad Muska, Woodkid, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and Audi, among others.
In 2021 RABI participated in the worldwide public art campaign, #NOTACRIME for educational equality in Iran. RABI's mural was painted over the summer in New York and the piece directly confronts the shattered educational system, "a result of an entire minority being barred just because of their beliefs." The mural is in keeping with his previous work – all of which has focused on society and the human condition. The owner of a nearby building, overlooking the Nelson Mandela Memorial Garden at the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 126th Street, offered the wall of her building to help the project. [17] That same year, he was commissioned by Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Venice to paint a large-scale mural on the building. [18] [19]
One year later, in 2022 RABI [20] held his first large solo exhibition, after his time in Street art collective, CYRCLE, titled gen+esc (generation+escape). [21] This was also his directorial debut. The show opened on September 15, 2022 in West Hollywood, California, at Nomad Gallery and ran through October 15, 2022. The exhibition was a series of short art films that “explored the relationship between identity and the artistic process.” [22] Each short-film cross-examined [23] “the role of image in personal narratives and reimagines the embodiment of self, depicting a world free of conventional posturing,” said RABI. [24] An interactive experience, guests were invited to utilize AR technology that cast imagery onto green-screen components throughout the space, including the building’s facade and different sculptures while experiencing the show. Exclusive NFTs and prints were available throughout the exhibition for purchase as well. [25] [26]
In August 2023 RABI continued his solo exhibition gen+esc (generation+escape), this time in Berlin. [27] [28] The exhibition opened at the new Urban Nation Museum satellite gallery, in Neukölln, and took place during Berlin Art Week, featuring short art films, installations, print editions, and ceramic sculptures, produced in part by ARTXIV. [29] [30] There he also created his first mixed-reality mural commissioned by Project PM 20 in Prenzlauer Berg. [31]
In January 2024 Rabi participated in a group exhibition titled The Cat Art Show in Los Angeles at the Wallis Annenberg PetSpace and 10% of art sales went to the fund. [32]
In March 2024 Rabi was invited by HK Walls [33] and the Hong Kong Consulate to create a mural in collaboration with the US Consulate General, Hong Kong in Sheung Wan. He was the only artist selected to represent the United States as an artist from each nation was hand picked to participate. [34] There he also exhibited works for Art Basel Hong Kong As well as hosted a screening and Q&A at the Soho House Hong Kong for his current short film works, Gen+esc. [35]
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Barry McGee is an American artist. He is known for graffiti art, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Yusuf Arakkal was an Indian artist.
Street poster art is a kind of graffiti, more specifically categorized as "street art". Posters are usually handmade or printed graphics on thin paper. It can be understood as an art piece that is installed on the streets as opposed to in a gallery or museum, but by some it is not comprehended as a form of contemporary art.
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, California. The commission oversees Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Public Art, SFAC Galleries, The Civic Art Collection, and the Art Vendor Program.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
Invader is a pseudonymous French street artist identified as Franck Slama. He is known for his ceramic tile mosaics modeled on the pixelated art of 1970s–1980s 8-bit video games, many of which depict the titular aliens from the arcade games Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros.. As of December 2020, his creations can be seen in highly-visible locations in 79 cities in 20 countries. To accompany his citywide installations, or "Invasions", Invader publishes books and maps as guides to the locations of his mosaics.
Word art or text art is a form of art that includes text, forming words or phrases, as its main component; it is a combination of language and visual imagery.
Vhils is the tag name of Portuguese graffiti and street artist Alexandre Manuel Dias Farto.
RISK, also known as RISKY, is a Los Angeles–based graffiti writer and contemporary artist often credited as a founder of the West Coast graffiti scene. In the 1980s, he was one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on "heavens", or freeway overpasses. He took his graffiti into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later created a line of graffiti-inspired clothing. In 2017, RISK was knighted by the Medici Family.
José Parlá, is a Brooklyn-based contemporary artist whose work has been described as "lying between the boundary of abstraction and calligraphy."
JR is the pseudonym of a French photographer and street artist. JR stands for the initials of JR's first name, which is Jean-René.
Jérome Catz, is an independent French curator. He is also the current director of the Spacejunk Art Centers.
David P. Flores is an American artist, muralist and product designer.
Wong Chi Hang Sara is a Hong Kong-based visual artist and landscape architect. Wong graduated with a BA degree in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1992 and an MA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Hong Kong.
CYRCLE was a collective made up of American artists David Leavitt, David Torres (RABI), and Devin Liston. The collective was formed in Los Angeles, California in 2010.
Gregory Michael Mensching, commonly known as Greg Mike, is an American artist. He began doing graffiti at age 13, and transitioned into murals in his later twenties. He is known for street art, mural painting and Loudmouf Icon in the United States, Australia, Canada and Switzerland. In 2008, he founded ABV Gallery and Agency in Atlanta, GA which exhibits artists from around the world and works with brands on commercial design projects.
Moncho 1929 is a Los Angeles–based street and contemporary artist originally from New York City known for his colorful murals and sociopolitical content. In 2016, he created banners that West Hollywood City Hall displayed on their building and in 2017, he was commissioned by Universal Pictures to paint three murals promoting the film Atomic Blonde starring Charlize Theron.
Szabotage is a British urban artist and interior designer. He was born as Gustav Szabo in Brighton, grew up in Hove and London, studied architecture and worked as a designer. He relocated to Hong Kong, where he became active in the street art scene and began to gain notoriety in the local and international urban art world.