A hit and run artist

For a graffiti artist, who has practised the art of hit (with a spray can) and run (with his paints), Xenz aka Graeme Brusby has come a long way. Paramita Ghosh writes.

For a graffiti artist, who has practised the art of hit (with a spray can) and run (with his paints), Xenz aka Graeme Brusby has come a long way.

HT Image

"Walls fundamentally belong to other people. Bristol, where I grew up, has a liberal approach to art on the walls," says the 35-year-old Britisher.

"I began spraying them since I was 12. In London, I have had to work at a frenetic pace. If I were to stand in front of a wall with a brush, no one would notice. A spray seems threatening…"

His pictures hung at the exhibition at the Wieden+Kennedy gallery hosted in collaboration with the British Council, presents a world far removed from the chaos of the street.

'Graffiti' no longer describes what he does. His frames teem with birds, ferns and woods in frames that would sit pretty in drawing rooms.

"People often come back with feedback like 'he paints birds, not women.'" he says with a laugh.

Xenz considers his work to be "like an organism, like an ivy or an orchid that mutates and grows in unusual places. This is the graffiti unstoppable element in it. I like to make things look as if they've always been there."

Butterflies, Birds + Spray Cans is on at W+K Exp gallery, Triveni Complex, Sheikh Sarai Phase 1, till October 8. For details, call 46009595