Surely this work sounds familiar to you graffiti artist kobra. The mural occupied an entire wall of a mechanical workshop, in the chelsea neighborhood , and seen from the High Line. It reproduced the famous photo of the kiss between a sailor and a nurse , in times square , during the celebration of the end of the Second World War.
The couple was marked by the characteristic kaleidoscope of hues by Kobra and surrounded by a strident circle of multicolored rays. When the artist completed it in 2012, it was an instant hit and became one of the most photographed corners of New York almost as much as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.
'The Kiss'.
On your next trip to the city you don't need to look for it. The mural was torn down, along with the entire building, four years later. “That was my favorite play” he explains with some regret Eduardo Kobra to Traveler.es. The mural of the kiss placed him in the street art map and brought him an avalanche of international projects that continue until now.
Sadly, the piece you just completed in the World Trade Center will not have better luck. The artist has created the mural on one of the temporary fences that cover what will one day be Tower 2, the second tallest skyscraper in the office district.
“It's a lot of work for something very ephemeral but I'm used to it. You can't be attached to your art." reflects the artist who, on this occasion, has collided with two great difficulties.
First, the surface is not flat, but has corrugations of the ventilation ducts and pipes. Second, the interference of three large containers beer garden which was installed for the months of good weather. “We had to improvise but I think it worked out well for us. we just hope that remove the bar this fall.”
His last work is located in the World Trade Center.
Even if they remove chairs and tables, The containers they'll probably still be there, but Kobra has done the feat of painting them too so that if you're facing the work, the pieces fit together as if by magic.
The play doesn't have a title yet, but we managed to get Kobra to come up with one on the spot: We are all one. “It is part of a series I am doing on the union of peoples, tolerance and respect among nations”.
In this same series is the mural that he painted in 2016 in the olympic boulevard Rio de Janeiro and that earned him the Guinness record for world's largest mural It covers 3,000 square meters and used 180 buckets of acrylic paint and 2,800 spray cans to represent the faces of the five continents.
The wall of World Trade Center it is the first Kobra paints outside of Brazil after the restrictions of the pandemic and it was a pending subject. "I arrived at New York in January 2019 to prepare the mural and in March, when he was going to start painting it, closed everything because of Covid-19. So we had to put it on pause until now, ”reveals the artist who he recognizes to be a big fan of painting on the streets of New York despite the slowness of the bureaucracy to obtain permits.
Detail of the new mural.
“I presented them with several proposals and, after a lot of hesitation, they finally chose the first one I sent them and this is it.” kobra has created the faces, of course, multicolored, of five women representing the five continents. “They symbolize that this is a place where the whole world comes together. I wanted to talk about peace and respect . Especially because of everything that happened here, too," he says. referring to 9/11.
Kobra feels a very special connection with New York. “I started doing graffiti in 1988 due to the influence of the graffiti artists who painted here, artists from the Bronx and brooklyn. Street art was born here. And I have a devotion for other creators closely linked to the city”.
So much so that in 2018 he painted, in the streets of New York, 19 murals in seven months. One of them was inspired by the monument to the four American presidents, the well-known Mount Rushmore , but replaced his faces with those of Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring and Basquiat. The work continues in Chelsea, decorating the wall of the empire diner, and very close to your particular tribute to Mother Teresa and Gandhi.
Another that fills him with pride is the one that stands on a lot in the West Village , right at the intersection of hudson and houston streets , dedicated to the immigrants who entered New York, seeking better fortune, for Ellis Island.
'Mount Rushmore'.
With almost 2,000 square meters of surface , is still the largest mural in the city and Kobra is proud not only because of its theme. “Basquiat studied at the City-As-School institute , where he gets up the piece, And you know how much I admire him."
Geniuses like Einstein and modern heroes like the new york firefighters decorate the walls of Midtown East. And another huge mural, from the same neighborhood, dedicated to artist Roy Lichtenstein was created in Brazil, packaged and finally installed in the terrace of the Even Hotel.
“I have been painting on the street for 30 years and I will continue to do so. In the street is where it is people of all conditions and social classes. It is a privilege to be able to show my work on this stage. Public art has not always been valued and even allowed. I have gone through all the phases of any artist and I was also arrested by the police . But now, this art is more present in the cities and even, historical places, galleries, museums… the more art, the better”, concludes Kobra.
Kobra, the king of New York street art.
Fans of the artist have many opportunities to admire his work. This complete map locate all his works on the geography of New York. And while his most recent intervention already shines in the World Trade Center, Kobra prepares the suitcases to fill with art Merida, where he plans to paint three murals , at the end of November. His conquest of public space has no end.