The Mac’s in money making Manhattan…
Miles ‘El Mac’ MacGregor is a Phoenix based artist & graffiti writer. His first New York solo show just opened at Chelsea’s Joshua Liner Gallery. The Humble and Sublime runs until November sixth.
Mac is one of the best. While many graffiti writers, if not most of them, use spray paint as a medium to emulate the rendering of airbrushing or vectorized design, The Mac is mastering the can as a noble entity. Every stroke is placed thoughtfully, craftily. And if such a thing rings a bell, you can tell that the whole thing was painted with a New York softball fat cap.
-In 2006, is when I really started to develop my brushwork & patterning style. Up until then I painted mostly two color faces. Black and white for the most part. After that, I started adding more details to the faces. And began to add a bit of color, some red here and there. In like 2007-2008, I began painting more parts of the body, not just the face. And now recently, there’s been more color and more design elements. I constantly push myself to go further and so I try to have an evolution and progress through my body of work.
Mac’s portraits are beautiful, and they appeal to most. There are no codified angles and arrows and bits. There are no references to pop culture, anti-consumerism and other subject matters that bring recognition to many street art peers.
-For this one, I was planning on maybe getting more political. I am always meaning to paint something that is timeless. I figured that there was so much bullshit going on out there, that I should address it less subtly. I have traveled a lot this year, so when I came back home, I was sittting on all these dope photographs of people from Vietnam and Singapore and various places. I was excited to paint them. I ended up painting as many as I could and painted them as well as I could. So in the end, really, it never did get much more political. I think maybe next time.
The beauty of the pieces tend to make them accessible. Easy, in a sense. Yet this writer’s got handstyles for days. And a history of hundreds (thousands?) of spots hit. Some of the biggest LA street gangsters are fond of his work. And so are the sassy Lower East Side chicks. Something must be going on.
The show’s dope. Check it out and get the info, here.
More on The Mac, on his website.
=====
Sentwo – He gets down for the boogie
Later on during the weekend we teamed up with Puerto Rican superstar’s Sen Two.This artist moved from the island to New York as a kid. After a stay in Miami, he set his base in the Bronx nearly twenty years ago.
He’s a fucking champ. Looked down upon as another immigrant young writer trying to take some space in the big city, he dashed through the negativity and is now actively contributing to making his borough of the South Bronx a better place. Sen worked on himself as a human and artist. He went from being an unwanted out of towner, to member of an important NYC graffiti crew, a clothing designer and now the proud owner of a clothing brand widely distributed, owner of a store, recognized member of the community.
-I use to fight everyday. Now, every morning when I open up the gate to the shop, I feel good. Right now, I paint canvas. Canvas, canvas, canvas, canvas. Every night i draw and paint. Last week I sold four pieces and yesterday I sent 10 to a show in Peru. Two nights ago Adidas held a special event in the store and now maybe we will collaborate on some art projects.
His store was recently featured in the New York Times. And the mayor of the Bronx wants to have a meeting with him to consult him on how to improve other areas of the city.
We linked up with him to paint a wall in Brooklyn. He got there a little late and everyone had started already. He got the smallest shittiest spot out of all four. “Before, I would’ve bitched and went home”. Sen painted his piece without a single complaint. He went for a real explosive style, and actually made the spot look much bigger than it really was.
Who ever said “I can’t make it” needs to step his life game up.
Check out Da Bakery & the homie Dave Foto.
Texte et photos Louis-Nicholas Coupal
