Where did the alias "Tvboy"
come from?
When I started working as designer I used
to spend several hours in front of a computer
screen so I started naturally to figure out
and doodle this small child with his head
trapped in a screen. Tvboy sounded good and
it almost reminds me of our generation, grown-up
watching cartoons.
Tvboy, conveys a message: "switch off
the tv, you're the protagonist."
Where did you grow up and how did
you get into art/design?
I was born in Palermo on 1980 and moved to
Milan where he was very young. My father was
a painter so I started drawing as a child.
I studied illustration at the Fine Arts Faculty
of Bilbao (Basque Region) and graduated in
Industrial Design at the Milan Polytechnic
where I have been working as contract assistant
of the course of Magazine Design. I'm currently
living in Barcelona where I'm working as art
director of local skate magazine.
People
always say Barcelona is an amazing city. What
is it like living there?
Fucking amazing! It's a city full of proposals,
art, and nightlife! And I love the sea.
Your
style is very bold, has this always been your
style or is it something you've developed
recently?
In 1996 I was deeply into letter graffiti.
Growing up I felt I need to study and improve
my drawing skills so I started studying illustration
and learning how to paint with and hyperrealistic
style. I soon ended up bored with it so I
felt I should go back to the roots and came
back to the street. It was about 2002 and
the street art scene in Milan was still increasing:
Painting in the street, you don't have much
time, so I started doing these quick and simple
styles of drawing.
What
mediums do you mostly use? Do you draw your
artwork by hand or use the
computer straight off?
I always draw everything with my own hands
and then eventually retouch with the computer,
or not.
Do
you still do much graffiti at all, or do you
stick to pen, paper, and screen nowadays?
Painting graffiti in Barcelona is getting
harder and harder. At the moment I'm painting
graffiti just under commitment, and I normally
prefer to wheat paste or to draw on walls
just with a marker. My painting and designing
studio activity is also important and it is
after all, the thing that feeds me up!
How do you see the graffiti scene?
Over here in the UK it's almost maxed out,
over-commercialised, losing the opinion and
movement it is supposed to reflect. Is graffiti
in Spain still alive and rocking?
You're right, and in Barcelona the graffiti
scene is mostly over now because of the new
low tolerance laws. Even so, Spain and Italy
are full of well established and even more
important, emerging talents, such as Blue
& Lolo.
For those who don't know, Salvatore
is referring to the law known as "L'Ordenance
de convivencia", which was introduced
in February 2006, and allows the police to
fine people up to 3000 euros for graffitti
or other forms of "vandalism".(read
on...)
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