When LA-based artist Gustavo Fuentes received a Facebook invitation to a friend’s Halloween party, his first thought wasn’t about what he’d wear—rather, the occasion seemed a fitting opportunity to mount one of his murals: hypnotic, rave-appropriate graphics made from cerulean painter’s tape. The artist, who’s still months away from his 21st birthday, is regularly asked to create work for his pal’s bedrooms, living rooms, and windows; the striped Halloween piece is just one of his most recent realized commissions. In his art, Fuentes improvises his symmetrical, zigzagging forms with uncanny precision; he doesn’t measure anything. “It’s hard for me to explain my love for dimensions and distances,” he says. “It’s just something I’ve always been into.”
Fuentes, who goes by the tag Flëkz (the name of his World of Warcraft avatar), prefers to make work in downtown LA’s abandoned alleyways or around the LA River, where the buildings’ white concrete walls make his medium pop. Once he chooses a site, he’ll graph the wall, as one might on graphing paper in an algebra class, in his mind. Then, after determining how big the piece will be, he gets started, using his last work as a blueprint, as each work builds upon the last. “It’s like sketching on paper,” Fuentes says. “I have no idea how it is going to turn out.”
Each piece, which takes up to 14 hours to complete, usually lasts a week before it’s taken down by the city’s graffiti removal crew. What’s the point of making work with such a short lifespan? “I just like to do it. I am not that attached to my work—I can take a photo and preserve it,” he says (his Instagram, tumblr, and Facebook pages are striking shrines for murals long destroyed). His work takes cues from Art Deco, LA architecture (favorites include the Westin Hotel and the Walt Disney Concert Hall), and a fondness for electronic music: outfits like Daft Punk, Crystal Castles, Daedalus, and Gorillaz provide the soundtrack as he works.
Born in El Salvador, Fuentes moved to Santa Monica when he was two, and later, to the San Fernando Valley. He had a penchant for running away from home to explore the city’s streets, and claims to know every one by heart. “I didn’t have much education toward art,” he says, crediting the 2010 film Exit Through the Gift Shop for piquing his interest in street art. After studying and attempting to replicate Banksy’s work, Fuentes soon discovered he could use tape to fix mistakes or tears in his stencils, and began using tape as a stencil itself. Two years later, after seeing the game-changing exhibition Art in the Street at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he applied for the institution’s Young Artist Program and was accepted a few weeks later. Fuentes spent a year apprenticing famed street artist Retna (known for his script-like hieroglyphics and dark, angelic portraits), who mentored the budding artist and solidified his desire to pursue mural-making.
On November 8, Fuentes will be featured in a group show at LA gallery 11:11 A Creative Collective called Beats and Pieces, where he’ll create a massive 20-foot-wide mural on-site for the exhibition. Other gigs are trickling in, but Fuentes’ main priority is to complete his degree (he wants to be an art dealer) and perfect his craft. “In LA, everyone has a yoga or meditation practice to manage their stress,” he says. “For me, it’s my art.”
Fuentes, who goes by the tag Flëkz (the name of his World of Warcraft avatar), prefers to make work in downtown LA’s abandoned alleyways or around the LA River, where the buildings’ white concrete walls make his medium pop. Once he chooses a site, he’ll graph the wall, as one might on graphing paper in an algebra class, in his mind. Then, after determining how big the piece will be, he gets started, using his last work as a blueprint, as each work builds upon the last. “It’s like sketching on paper,” Fuentes says. “I have no idea how it is going to turn out.”
Each piece, which takes up to 14 hours to complete, usually lasts a week before it’s taken down by the city’s graffiti removal crew. What’s the point of making work with such a short lifespan? “I just like to do it. I am not that attached to my work—I can take a photo and preserve it,” he says (his Instagram, tumblr, and Facebook pages are striking shrines for murals long destroyed). His work takes cues from Art Deco, LA architecture (favorites include the Westin Hotel and the Walt Disney Concert Hall), and a fondness for electronic music: outfits like Daft Punk, Crystal Castles, Daedalus, and Gorillaz provide the soundtrack as he works.
Born in El Salvador, Fuentes moved to Santa Monica when he was two, and later, to the San Fernando Valley. He had a penchant for running away from home to explore the city’s streets, and claims to know every one by heart. “I didn’t have much education toward art,” he says, crediting the 2010 film Exit Through the Gift Shop for piquing his interest in street art. After studying and attempting to replicate Banksy’s work, Fuentes soon discovered he could use tape to fix mistakes or tears in his stencils, and began using tape as a stencil itself. Two years later, after seeing the game-changing exhibition Art in the Street at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he applied for the institution’s Young Artist Program and was accepted a few weeks later. Fuentes spent a year apprenticing famed street artist Retna (known for his script-like hieroglyphics and dark, angelic portraits), who mentored the budding artist and solidified his desire to pursue mural-making.
On November 8, Fuentes will be featured in a group show at LA gallery 11:11 A Creative Collective called Beats and Pieces, where he’ll create a massive 20-foot-wide mural on-site for the exhibition. Other gigs are trickling in, but Fuentes’ main priority is to complete his degree (he wants to be an art dealer) and perfect his craft. “In LA, everyone has a yoga or meditation practice to manage their stress,” he says. “For me, it’s my art.”