Photography by Lanny Nguyen and Ian Lundie
123KLAN
Mural location: 785 S. 1st Street, San Jose
123KLAN based in Montreal, Canada, is a graffiti crew founded in 1992 by the French duo Scien and Mrs. Klor. Influenced by various 90’s graffiti art expressed in Europe and New York, 123KLAN crafted a hybrid style that mixes graffiti art and graphic design, and gives rise to a new synthesis forming their motto, “When street knowledge meets technology, and graffiti art melts wit graphic design.” Their first works were enriched by huge, sharped- angled letters in acid colors and characters with futuristic manga features posed alongside experimental types. Far from confining themselves to urban walls with the aerosol, the vector allows them to land on multiple media, like record sleeves, posters, stickers, toy designs, posters, skateboards, canvas, shoes, and t-shirts.
Apexer
Mural location: 25 N. 1st Street, San Jose
APEXER is a street artist who creates colorful abstract patterns through the use of spray paint. Part of the Gestalt Collective that engages in collaborative murals in San Francisco, Apexer curated mural projects on Bluxome Alley, other districts of San Francisco and the SFMOMA display windows in association with St. Johns Community Center (San Francisco, 2002). His work has been shown extensively both in the Bay Area and abroad. He was also featured in documentaries and publications regarding the Mission District in San Francisco.
Dragon76 / Woes
Mural location: 748 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Born in Shiga, Japan, Dragon76 is a Japanese artist who specializes in large-scale live painting at galleries, music events and alternative spaces world-wide. His intricate and complex style is rooted in a combination of Graffiti, Manga, and Ukiyo-e. Working fast, in classic graffiti “throw up” style, Dragon76 paints with acrylic and marker pen as well as using stenciling techniques. His art is described by many as passionate and energetic and the concept of his art style is the co-existence of two opposites such as the past and future, stillness and motion, evil and justice. Be it music, dance, bathing in sunshine or marching against injustice, his talent lies in capturing an energy that conveys action, Dragon76 creates stunning works that feel as well as look wonderful. Dragon76 also performs improvised and dynamic live painting shows around the world, which always attracts large audiences. Dragon76 lives and works in New York, where his art and style continue to progress. He is a two-time winner of the 2017 New York Art Battle.
Woes was born on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, but spent most of his childhood growing up and moving from Southern California to Nevada before finally landing back into Hawaii during his Junior year in high school. In 1998 a car accident changed everything; this life-threatening experience inspired him to leave the island once again, this time to Seattle, Washington. Inspired by the people, rain and being indoors, he started playing around with different art mediums again. Woes then left back to Hawaii with a new perspective. Having roots in graffiti, Woes started rocking his iconic Panda characters to leave a mark in different cities, countries around the world and became addicted leaving his character of a species in jeopardy. Woes has shown in galleries and been published in magazines across the US mainland to Asia , South East Asia, South Pacific and all over Europe. Woes has worked on project swith companies & collective such as Mind Style toys, Disney, Flab Slab, Kidrobot, Fitted Hawaii /New Era, Kicks Hawaii.
Drew Flores
Mural Location: 601 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Drew Flores, an artist from San Jose, interests range in various traditional cultural forms within areas of American traditional, Japanese, and Aztec/Mayan styles. Drew’s cross-cultural influence reinterprets Mexico’s ancient imagery as he blends together with Japanese bold compositions.
Felicia Gabaldon
Mural Location: VTA Eastridge Transit Center
Felicia Gabaldon’s work draws from the imagination, both a mythical and mystic part of human experience in the natural world. Her work is experienced through cultural and folkloric content, expressing the wonders of nature realized through iconic symbols and tradition.
Abel Gonzalez
Mural Location: 82 S. Montgomery Street, San Jose
Abel Gonzalez is a San Jose local artist who creates sculptures consisting of an assemblage of woodworking with minimal paint and wood finishes. By uniting small pieces of wood, he achieves a chiseled composition, giving his sculptures an organic anatomy. His background in graffiti is perceived through the jagged edges and ridges of each individual piece of wood.
Ivan Gonzalez
Mural Location: 734 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Encouraged by his friends and older brother to pursue his artistry, San Jose local artist Ivan Gonzalez draws inspiration for his work from everyday occurrences and life experiences. His works range from portraits of musicians to landscapes, and large-scale murals.
How and Nosm
Mural Location: 300 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Born in Spain, German in heritage, and residing in New York since 1999, the identical twin brothers How and Nosm (Raoul and Davide Perre) are best known internationally for their large-scale murals that adorn city walls. The twins first encountered graffiti art as young teenagers making aerosol paramount in all their public works. Utilizing limiting palettes and complex compositions make their work visually mesmerizing. As you peel back one layer, another story reveals itself further complicating the message and meaning. Ongoing themes of alcoholism, betrayal, and abuse of power intertwine with positive elements as though a mirror is being held up to society; a dizzying effect that requires patience and time to unwind.
Title of mural and description: “Qualities of Life” Our latest mural focuses on the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It reflects on life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, safety, security to freedom, religious beliefs, and the environment. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income.”
ICY and SOT
Installation location: Currently not available
ICY and SOT are artists from Tabriz, Iran, who currently reside in Brooklyn, New York. The two brothers started doing stencils back in 2006, and have contributed to Iranian and international urban art culture through their murals and installations that depict capitalism, ecological justice, human rights, and social and political issues. Their work appears on walls and galleries throughout China, Germany, Iran, Norway, the United States and globally. They transcend their histories of artistic and political censorship by using public art to envision a world freed from borders, war, and violence. LET HER BE FREE was the first ICY and SOT art collection and covers nearly a decade of their career with more than 200 full-color pictures. The collection offers a retrospective of their art in their early Iranian years, follows the brothers’ journey to New York City and depicts their work all over the world.
Illuminaries
Mural Location: No longer available
Steve Ha, Tim Hon and Romali Licudan are Bay Area and San Diego street art muralists and graphic artists specializing in high impact, energizing decor. The Illuminaries passion is in improving indoor and outdoor spaces with the creative use of traditional or digital mediums.
J.Duh
Mural Location: 1068 The Alameda, San Jose
Whether Switching between a commission and personal work or signs and illustrations, artist J. Duh is most content when he’s experimenting. Influenced by everything from skating boarding to his city, the San Jose based J. Duh expresses the little wonders of life through sharp but explosive linework. With a cool sense of composition and a keen eye for social forces, J. Duh’s art is bold, clever, and always in step with the zeitgeist.
Knits for Life – Lorna & Jill Watt
Location: 520 S. 1st Street, San Jose / no longer viewable
Born and raised in San Jose, Lorna and Jill Watt, famously known as Knits For Life, draw inspiration for their art from the Gold Rush showing off their Northern California roots. Award-winning installation artists, yarnbombers, and knitting & crochet designers the self-taught sisters began their journey one winter in Michigan while Lorna was attending state. Together the two took up knitting and crocheting. “We embrace innovation and entrepreneurship but choose to work as a small hands-on team of two.” Now residing in San Mateo at Claremont Art Studios together they pursue their dreams of bringing imagination to life with yarn.
Spenser Little
Spenser Little is a self-taught artist who has been bending wire for the last 15 years, allowing his creativity to morph into images that range from simple wordplay to complex portraits. Some works contain moving components and multiple wires, but mostly the pieces are formed from one continuous piece of wire that is bent and molded to Little’s will.
Frances Marin
Mural Location: 1068 The Alameda, San Jose
Frances Marin Lopez is a visual artist and illustrator living in San Jose. The mysterious nature of life, both real and imagined, lead her to explore everyday familiarities, dreams, memory, the subconscious, and humor in her work. These ideas are explored primarily through drawing and painting with water media. Recurring themes include escape, nature, our preoccupation with objects, and the absurdity of life. Her art has been exhibited in the US and Spain and lives in homes in the US and around the world including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, and throughout Europe. She has worked on illustration projects for Casper, Chromatic Coffee, Content Magazine, and Washington Square Magazine.
Harumo Sato
Mural Location: 194 W Santa Clara Street, San Jose
Harumo Sato is a California based Japanese visual artist who graduated from University at Buffalo in 2015. In questioning our busy and highly industrialized daily lives, she translates old mythological analogy and allegory imagery into the modern, colorful, and unique visual images. She has a strong interest in pattern design which has traveled through many cultures and contexts over the centuries. With the various colorful materials like screen prints, Japanese watercolor, Sumi ink, and acrylic she seeks visual pleasure and vivacious energy to open the viewer’s mind.
Shrine
Mural Location: 490 W. San Carlos Street, San Jose
Shrine, aka Brent Spears, is a self-taught artist who has painted over sixty interactive murals around the world, and over fifty murals in Los Angeles. He has painted numerous restaurants and retail store interiors and exteriors including La Luz De Jesus Gallery, The Soap Plant, the first five Houses of Blues and many others. Shrine also paints cars, furniture, and shoes, and creates paintings on wood-framed glass windows. He has created two large-scale temples made from trash at Burning Man, and sculptures at Coachella, Boom Festival, Symbiosis Gathering, and Bonnaroo.
Sixcoin
Mural Location: No longer available
SIXCOIN is an artist based out of Seoul who was born in Korea. He has been painting on the streets since 2004. Currently working on creating an original character based on the story of a ghost in Korean folklore. Through his work, he aims to deliver positive energy and spark the imagination. Most artwork is a reflection of the artist and their stories.
Skinner / UrbanAztec
Mural Location: 748 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Hardly your ordinary artist, Skinner is a one of a kind. The self-taught artist lives in Oakland, California and he has amassed a wealth of work both on the walls and on the canvas around the world. Influenced by 80’s pop culture, human struggle, mythical creatures, and heavy metal, Skinner’s art are of psychosocial mayhem fueled by a calculated chaos. Ambassador of the alternative arts movement in countries around the globe, Skinner’s art is celebrated in various publication and shown in various museums, universities, and galleries.
Note from Skinner: “This was a chance to show up and do a mural that gives thanks to the vibrant Mexican community that saw one of their most beloved Chicano murals buffed over in East San Jose a few months ago. I’m really grateful to have been able to combine my energy with @urbanaztec Jesse Hernandez, who pushes his powerful art all over the bay, to create something that recognizes this loss and tries to bring some color, day of the dead, and psychedelic azteca love to this amazing city. That’s why you don’t see my standard nightmarish ass crazy shit hahaha! Not to mention this is across the street from where families live, so I don’t want to give the ninos nightmares you know? Haha! I learned a lot and I’m glad to doing more mural stuff! If you go now, you can see so many incredible moralists from all over the world killing it in San Jose! Just follow @powwowsanjose and special thanks to @empire7studios for making it all happen! I love y’all! located in the alley behind 748 South first street!”
Jesse Hernandez (UrbanAztec) is an artist born and raised in the Bay area, most widely recognized for his murals, vinyl art toys, and animation work. His style is known as “Urban Aztec” a combination of graffiti and ancient indigenous culture. Hernandez’s artwork has been featured in the Oakland Museum, Rolling Stone, Juxtapoz, Playstation, Outside Lands, and the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. Hernandez has shown art in galleries and museums around the world and painted murals in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico city & Amsterdam.
Nikkea Takagi
Mural location: Auzerais Avenue and Woz Way, San Jose
Nikkea Takagi, a biracial Japanese artist, raised in San Jose, explores the process of personal healing within her brightly colored paintings. Most of her work depicts familiar characters submerged in their own tiny eco-systems, surrounded by teapots, plants, and lanterns. Nikkea’s work is deeply rooted in the process of self-discovery and healing. To Nikkea, art is a practice of self-care and is deeply personal. “My art is constantly changing and evolving, as am I. This work does not exclusively represent me, but it is a reflection of my ever-expanding experience.” Nikkea values that we all relate to imagery uniquely according to our individual narratives. Through the use of playful colors, body-positivity, and small tokens of comfort, she hopes to invoke a sense of empowerment and empathy to all of those who view her work. Nikkea Takagi is a budding artist in the Bay Area. Her goal is to more vulnerable present her own experiences as a personal act of energy clearing and as an offering to anyone in need of some compassion or connection.
Cory Taum
Mural Location: 724 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Cory Kamehanaokala Taum has been a life-long student and avid participant in the Oceanic art movement, in both traditional and contemporary forms ranging from large-scale public murals to traditional Hawaiian tattooing and carving. In his youth, he made a name for himself creating graffiti that echoed the ancient styles and philosophies of his mother land Hawai’i. Since then, he has been able to delve deeper into the forms of his ancestors and hopes to present them to the world thru his surreal and iconic paintings that reflect both the tales of his ancestors, juxtaposed with his experience being born raised in the concrete jungle of Honolulu.
Title of mural and description: “One Ocean, One People”
A celebration of Oceanic peoples and our great legacy of voyaging around the earth. Inspired by the idea that the ocean is something that unites us, not seperate us. “There are no more suitable people on earth to be guardians of the worldʻs largest ocean than those for whom it has been home for generations”- Epeli Hauʻofa. The composition of patterns and manaʻo were shared with me thru our teacher, Suluʻape Keone Nunes, and reference different aspects of Hawaiian spirituallity in regards to navigation and voyaging. The “above the clouds” scene represents the view for the migratory sea birds and the idea that as human beings we must strive for the zenith in every choice and action.
t.w. five
Mural Location: Circle-A, 108 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose
t.w. five is an international artist duo based in San Francisco, California. They work with adhesive backed vinyl focusing largely on the process. All shapes are hand-cut into strips from larger rolls of solid color vinyl and then carefully applied to the surface of the work. “We usually create massive scale installations and integrate the gallery space with our art.”
Roan Victor / Sean Boyles
Mural Location: 702 S. 1st Street, San Jose
Co-owning and operating The Arsenal with her husband, artist Sean Boyles, Roan Victor is utterly dedicated to her art. Sublime, ethereal paintings in oil, and lately watercolor, her work expresses—often through flowers, linens, and obscured faces—the camouflage or privacy we all seek in an increasingly changing world. “I’m a painter. I work in watercolor, oil and latex paint. Watercolors keep me in order and oil painting is a party. When I paint walls, encountering various scales, proportions and settings excite me. I revel in the different ways I can present a figure in such a large format.”
Sean mostly draws and paints. His day job is teaching others to do the same whether at Mission College, CSU Monterey Bay or at The Arsenal, which Sean opened with his wife Roan Victor in 2011. The aesthetic of Sean’s work comes from watching cartoons, playing video games, painting graffiti, collecting garbage pail kids, reading comic books, watching Star Wars, kung fu, ninja, sci-fi, and giant monster movies. Sean creates his work between his heart and head; between what he knows and what he feels. Sean tries to be both detailed and gestural, clean and messy, smooth and gritty, fluid and structured, soft subtleties with loud splattery edges.