As I’ve mentioned on several occasions in the past, there’s a distinctive quality to a lot of South American street art that I really like. I’m beginning to figure out exactly what it is that appeals to me so much.

Jade Rivera is a great example of the super-talented street artists standing out among a ridiculously gifted group from the continent.

This piece is painted in the district of Lima where Jade grew up. Generally his paintings are painted to reflect what his perceptions of the events, people and places around him are, drawing on the graphic style of his Andean heritage. The bright colour palette of art from the Andes is evident in his work along with the distinctive eyes of his characters. It’s a style not often seen in the UK street art scene, probably due to the UK being a little more than a short bus ride away…

Maybe if it was more prevalent here I wouldn’t be quite as big a fan?

Jade’s art seems to carry some of that mysterious symbolic latin charm too. His work repeatedly includes the simple small home-like structures seen in this work, seemingly with some sort of social commentary aspect to his work.

In this piece “Pompas de jabón” or literally, “bubble blower”, the two bubbles include a book, and a house. In this painting I thought perhaps that the bubbles represented the fragility of education and housing, with both perhaps seeming just out of reach for the poorest residents of Peru’s capital…

What do you reckon?

Steven
UKB