Felipe Pantone (born 1986) is an Argentine-Spanish contemporary artist. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and raised in southeast Spain. Pantone's body of work is based in kinetic art, installations, graffiti, and design, characterized by «use of bold colors, geometrical patterns, and Op Art elements». His combinations recall «bright colored typography, 80s Synth pop music, and SMPTE color bars on the TV».[1]
History
Pantone began doing graffiti as Pant1 in Torrevieja, Spain, then moved to Valencia at the age of 18, where he started painting with the D.O.C.S crew and later became part of UltraBoyz (UB). He became known for his avant-garde cursive handstyle.[2]
Pantone began showing his work in galleries in 2006.[3] It has since appeared on buildings, walls and in galleries worldwide, from the Mesa Contemporary Arts Center to the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, as well as in Mexico City, Osaka, Lisbon, Palestine, Italy, and Australia.[4] Pantone has been featured in various forms of media, including Reebok's "Always Classic" campaign.[5] He used a 1994 Corvette as a canvas for his pixelated graphics, a piece presented in the exhibit Beyond the Streets. The piece is now known as "Ultradynamic".[6]
Style
The widebeamGrowbeautifully painted by Felipe Pantone
Pantone often works in gradients, blending geometric shapes with neon colors and whites, blacks, and greys, with critics noting "The divisions between geometric patterns and gradients are so effortlessly blended that the larger patterns seem created with digitization rather than with two hands."[7] He cites the Parisian Grim Team and UltraBoyz crews as early influences.[8]
Forbes magazine called his aesthetic "the intersection of Blade Runner and PhotoShop" for its concepts of dynamism, transformation, and movement.[9] Others[who?] have said he has created a new visual dialogue derived from his infatuation with the digital age, comparing his work to Venezuelan Op artistCarlos Cruz-Diez's chromatic linework and the geometric graphics of Jonathan Zawada.[10]
