This art is too smart - Waone (IK)

Artists

Waone (IK)

Curator

Galleria Varsi

“This art is too smart”,  Waone (Interesni Kazki) solo-show opens at Galleria Varsi in Rome from December 1, 2018 to January 12, 2019.

I never took the easy way out. Easy way outs were always boring for me. I stopped painting graffiti because it was too easy. Then I stopped working with spray paints and switched to acrylic and brush because spray was too easy.

I created a surreal and multi symbolic universe inspired by science, nature, magic and spiritual practices (once I even took a holy order). From simple to complex is the goal of my art and my life style. 

‘Your art is too smart’, I once heard from one brand, refusing collaboration. So, my dream is to make high art acceptable to everyone!

With these words the Ukrainian artist Vladimir Manzhos, aka Waone, introduces himself. Waone was born in 1981 in Ukraine, where he lives and works in Kiev. His passion for symbolic art derives from his family, and in particular from his father’s collection of local art and orthodox icons, whose millennial symbolism and clear and decisive traits have particularly influenced his artistic development.

In 1999 he starts painting graffiti and from 2005 to 2016 he created the duo of muralists Interesni Kazki (“Interesting Fables”), to then continue his activity alone. As Waone states, “… I can say that in our pieces we use mystical, religious, mythological, historical subjects. I like symbolism in general and I like to create my symbols”.

And it is precisely the use of symbols that brings him to develop his own personal language, whose particularly elegant linear style alternates black and white strokes with crisp and clean colors, asserting his unmistakable style.

In recent years Waone (Interesni Kazki) has created murals all over the world and has held solo and group exhibitions in several European and American galleries: Jonathan LeVine Gallery (NY), Midcity-Arts Gallery
(LA), Antonio Colombo (Milan), Allouche Soho Art Gallery (NY), Avantgarden Gallery (Milan).