Mat Curran
Jan 20, 2009
In keeping with the theme of street art this week, we started researching local artists whose style was a cross between traditional tattoo and graffiti. Mat Curran kept popping up, and the further I dug, the more I wanted to know. Along with Derek Toomes and Joseph Giampino, Mat started Parail Studios – a studio commissioned for murals, well rendered canvas pieces and the one of the few places one can take a graffiti workshop. Right here, in the epicenter of khaki.
The three uphold the very key elements of street style in all that they do; spontaneity, immediacy, and the need to indelibly mark their environment. They are pushing the boundaries that the city authorities have set for them and also finding new, legal outlets for their work. The founding of Parail Studios itself is quite the statement against the norm, and hopefully ruffling the feathers of tightly wound area artists who need motivation to creatively, or otherwise, let loose.
Mat Curran is currently involved in a large show at the CItyArts Factory in Orlando in which he’s unapologetically covered the gallery walls with his illustrations and melded them into the space he is sharing with thirty other artists. This must have been easy for him, his work is so kinetic anyways. He layers the colors co that the white and black of his characters pop, while the backgrounds blend synergistically with the environment. Mat’s honed into a style all his own: all wrinkles, teeth and fingers. Nefarious, and in a gallery
We can’t help but feel that the winds have shifted in our direction when the UNCG Design, Art and Technology Symposium groups graffiti artists in with “internationally known architects, cutting-edge motion-graphic designers and entrepreneurial creative designers.” Take in these photos and remember that Mat is living proof that taggers are fine artists.
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