PAS #4-Can Gogh: The Original Spray Paint Artist

A few years ago, when I was in Mexico, I noticed a group of people gathered around this man…working my way to the front I was amazed to see the beautiful paintings this man was making using spray paint. I sat in amazement that anyone could create something so beautiful at such a fast pace.

Any of us that have been through a big city have noticed it. The colorful words and pictures painted onto sides of buildings, trains, and bridges. Most of us associate ‘spray paint’ with graffiti, but Hugo Montero, associates spray paint as his form of expression, but he isn’t defacing public property…he is making beautiful pieces of work.

Hugo refers to himself as ‘Can Gogh,’ and was inspired by another artist, Sadot. The art form he takes place in is called, ‘Aerosolgrafia,’ and is the hybrid child of the avant-garde art movement, which flourished in Mexico’s capital. Mexican artists were often influenced by the American and European urban art forms like graffiti, pop art, and jazz-fusion.

Hugo attended La Escuela Nacional de Maestros (the nation teaching school) and learned the technique of spray paint artists by a friend named Hernandez.  After perfecting his strategy, Hugo traveled into the United States and started bringing performance spray can art to big cities in the U.S., like Los Angeles and New York. He was greeted with amazement and disbelief. After traveling throughout the US, he decided that he wanted to take up spray can art as his full-time career.

Hugo is a perfect example that you can make art using absolutely anything, and I truly admire everything he does.

Below, is Hugo Montero at work

Below, is another rendition of spray paint art by a different artist in New York City

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