Rendering by Eduardo Mendieta
Eduardo Mendieta, Palm Beach County. “I make art for the
people.” Mendieta says. Originally from Union City, New Jersey,
Eduardo Mendieta, who goes by the moniker Emo, has been
living in West Palm Beach for the last 20 years.
Starting at a young age he was interested in graffiti and the
fine arts. Now he is showing in various locations throughout
South Florida, and being featured in publications such as Palm
Beach Times, FreePress Magazine, and Closer Magazine. His
large colorful designs can be seen at Cabo Flats restaurants
and in a prominent art lot on the west end of Clematis Street
where The Swings resided this past Spring.
His work has been displayed all throughout South Florida in
such areas including Palm Beach International Airport as part
of the Palm Beach County Arts in Public Places Program, and
large scale murals located throughout Downtown West Palm
Beach. Two of these murals have been in association with the
Downtown Development Authority of West Palm Beach.
Rendering by Ruben Ubiera
Ruben Ubiera, Miami-Dade County. Ruben Gerardo
Ubiera Gonzalez of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is a neo-figurative artist, known for his strong
use of the line, graffiti inspired technique/esthetic, urban murals, mixed-media pieces and installations, all
created with reclaimed-objects and found artifacts. He
paints and draws in a style considered as Postgraffism,
but he prefers to call it urban-pop, since he has lived
most of his life in urban, populated areas and most
of his inspiration is derived from the inter activity
between man and his urban environment. At the age
of 1 5, his family moved to the Bronx, NY, where he was
heavily influenced by the graffiti art that surrounded
him, something he wouldn’t realize until much later in
his life.
Ubiera strives in all his work to capture an essential
part of his past, his present and his subjects through
the use of the line and form. His work includes still-life
and situational portraiture but he tends to primarily
focus on depicting his immediate urban surroundings
and everyday complex human emotions using a
strong and expressive line, a vivid graphic color
contrast all while adding a mix of youth-angst and
detailed complexity. All this is executed on found
objects, he almost never paints on canvas. Ubiera
believes that his work has no frames, much like the
everyday art that is developing on the streets.
“My work it’s an evolution from the urban art that
we have become accustomed to see on an everyday
basis. Not graffiti. Postgraffism. Postgraffism is – if I
may describe it, an new kind of urban art. An eloquent
evolution of what’s happening on the streets with
graffiti and the like. The beauty (or the perception of
beauty) changes with time. It evolves. So does our
appreciation for what is around us. I am a product of a
generation who saw, at a young age, the change from
public phones to the mini-computers we all carry and
call cellular phones”.
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