BTOY
Andrea Michaellson is the female and better known part of the spanish artist duo BTOY from Barcelona. Though she started working with stencils only in 2001, she soon got a very good reputation in the worldwide streetartist subculture. Now BTOY is an established name in this subculture, her exhibitions in Los Angeles, Paris, London, Mexico, Brussels always cause a stir and attact public attention.
Her works are mostly based on old photographs of the prominent Hollywood actresses from the 20ie and the 50ie years like Judy Garland as Dorothy in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" or Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. She lends them an unforgettable expression through her painting technique reminding the classical glase: she puts many semitransparent colour coatings over each other. With the large powerful brushstrokes she puts the luscious clours and earthy shades on the black-and-white surface of the old pictures and breath the new life into them. The nostalgic mood is increased by the contrast of the monochrome and the multicoloured parts in her works.
From the deep of another epoque the fragile characters look at the viewer seeking for the direct eye contact with him. With this glance they want to tell him their stories. It seems that the passed time is responcible for their frailty. The cimages of BTOY appear to the viewer so dreamy, mysterious, melancholic. The beauty of her models raises even more, because they are ripped out of their original context and are put into a new surrounding where the stay alone. Intertextuality also plays a very important role for BTOY. She wants to stop the time for a short moment, to invite the viewer to a dialogue with her work, to encourage him to look behind the mask, to think on the fates of her figures and to remind their own volatilized dreams.
BTOY in Pretty Portal Online Shop
Available works by BTOY
Exhibitions by BTOY
"Stencils Only"
24.9. - 15.10.2010
together with:
C215 (Paris)
2SickBastards (London)
PISA73 (Berlin)
L.E.T. (Düsseldorf)
Pictures of the Exhibition
