Nar [itw]

Today, we will promote the artwork of the artist which alias is Nar but sometimes he uses other words to connect with it, like « Narcotic » or « Enarc »

StreetLove THE ARTIST

He was born in Novorossisk of Russia in 1982 and he moved with his family in Greece in 1991 and since then he lives in Thessaloniki (find out our 10 good reasons to fly to Thessaloniki which we loved visiting).

The story about his artist name his related to a movie he saw about vampires which was something between a comedy and a thriller and there was a man which name was Gennaro, he thought it’s Italian name and he liked it he doesn’t know why, but later he started to write it on walls but there were too many letters so he shorted and since then he write it: NAR.

How long have you been involved in street art?
« I don’t know how to answer to this question. What exactly is street art? What i do is street art? You have to tell me, if what I do is street art then I could say that I’m involved since 2001 but I started painting on walls since 1997 mostly letters not the kind of organic shapes that I do nowdays »

He mostly works alone but he often paints with my friend « Pralinas » and other graffiti writers (AUTS, RAIDS, SAE, FLOP, EDOM, KONES, THINK).
« We also have something like a crew but it’s not exactly a crew, it’s more like having a good time when we paint together, we call this connection TSIMUHA »

He had exhibited only in one Gallery in Cyprus but he’s still not so much in to that direction because he prefers working on walls, but he would like to exhibit more often later when he will make better stuff.

To let people know about his artwork he uses mostly FlickR and a couple of websites including StreetLove, but he has no Internet connection at home so he only communicates like 10-15 hours a month.

StreetLove THE ART

It’s very rare for him to work on canvas and lately he started experimenting with empty spray-cans.

« I could say that one person inspired me a lot is H.R.Giger and everything that surrounds us are various inspirations too. But lately I started to combine organic shapes with characters to make it more likeable to the audience »

Nar is able to work from S to XXL on walls! He likes all sizes.

How many pieces have you put in the streets?
« Very few because I usually paint in abandoned buildings but my plan is to fill the streets of my city with the stuff that I do everywhere (mostly in the west areas) »

His pieces aren’t working in a series, there are no messages in what he does, he just paint.
Definitely, he loves graffiti, because he loves using the spray-can: « there are so many things that you can do with it and it’s a lot easier, you just press the cap and the colour is coming out »
He appears quite easy reading what you say, but I’m sure to be unable to make something with a spray-can, except a pshiiiit!

In terms of street art theme, he likes to combine smiley characters with organic abstract shapes and maybe symbolic objects with hieroglyphics from distant and future civilizations.

StreetLove THE TECHNIQUE

Nar paints on any surface, it doesn’t matter to him but definitely he prefers the wall and sometimes large metallic doors. He also likes the train, but it is limited like canvas, it depends what are you going to do and a few people see it and beside that, it probably will be cleaned quickly but not always (some pieces on trains can stay like 2 or 3 years only in Greece).

But painting on trains or other means of transport, allows your Art to travel over countries, doesn’t it?

« Spray-can is the best tool and sometimes for the fillings I use acrylic colour, it’s a little bit cheaper but mostly we (Pralinas, Flop & Fest) steal from the house-yards when they have leftovers from previous interior paintings »

About the time he needs to put a piece on a wall, it probably depends on what and where he does it, if it’s illegal or not but « let’s say from 1 to 4 hours and sometimes more »

StreetLove THE FUN

To go working, Nar always brings a bottle of water and for the rest he doesn’t have money.
His favorite colours are orange, light green, pink and whatever comes in his hands, he will use it.
He prefers listenning to electronic music which he likes the most and anything that is related to it like ambient-techno, deep-progressive, etc…
About movies he prefers sci-fi, comedies and psychological-mystery movies something more different than the reality that we live.

Do you take photos of your artwork?
« Not always, if there is something that I don’t like and there is no way to change it I don’t take photo of it at all, I don’t even want to remember it »

3 things Nar loves: definitely having chocolate hazelnut for breakfast, listening good music while lying on the sofa and eating ice-cream.

A message for the StreetLove team?
Thanks for the interview and I wish you a larger audience for the next years