Franco Fasoli, aka Jaz, has relocated from Buenos Aires to Barcelona, one of the European meccas of urban art. The Spanish city has long been embedded in Fasoli’s artistic trajectory – he first encountered public art as a young adult while visiting the Catalonian capital, the influence of which subsequently marked a move away from the traditional hip-hop style of graffiti he had been practicing since the 90’s towards the large scale murals on which he now works. Jaz’ steadily rising international profile means he now spends more than 6 months of the year attending street art festivals, doing artist residencies and exhibiting worldwide. Barcelona’s central European location aligns more with Jaz’s current lifestyle and will see him splitting his time between working in the studio for exhibitions (both group and solo shows) and painting externally.

Although the Argentine artist is now counting Europe as his new home, his first wall since leaving Argentina was in Morocco. Participating in the Jidar Festival in the Moroccan capital Rabat along with international artists such as Pixel Pancho, Maya Hayuk, Tilt , Ron English and Inti and local artists Simo Mouhim, Kalamour and Rebel Spirit, Jaz’s huge mural, entitled “The Shoe Thief”, sees the artist delve even further into the thematic and stylistic synthesis he has been pursuing in recent months. The mural translates the aesthetic of collage he has employed in pieces in the Dominican Republic and Mexico into a stylised painting that deals with the themes of conflict and identity.

Jaz continued with this aesthetic subversion of his material experimentation with the mural painted at the second international festival he attended, Mural Festival, in Montreal. The wall, which depicts two men clashing and the emergence of two bulls from the fray, stays true to the compositional use of duality that Fasoli often incorporates into his work. However, it is in fact a reproduction of a collage done as part of a solo show for the Celaya Brothers Gallery in Mexico City last February, entitled “Popular”. Again, Jaz has transferred the visual of the collage on canvas onto a painted wall, and the effect is graphic and imposing. Check out a recent interview with Street Art News to find out more about his process.

Franco Fasoli has a busy year ahead, and 2015 will see him dedicating himself to the following festivals, residencies and exhibitions:

June – Group show – SUBEN. London, UK
July – Pangeaseed Festival – Cozumel, México.
August –  Diego Rivera Project of MAF – Amberes, Belgium
September – Cityleaks Festival –  Cologne, Germany
September – Group show. Athen B. Gallery – Oakland, California. USA
November – Solo show – Elsi del Río Gallery – Buenos Aires, Argentina

If you would like to know more about Jaz and his art please get in touch.