Blu

Blu - Street Artist

About Blu's life not much information is available. It is assumed that he was born in Senigallia and grew up artistically in the city of Bologna, where a series of graffiti works have appeared on the city's walls since 1999.
In his works, humanoid figures with grotesque shapes and sarcastic, even dramatic connotations seem to multiply endlessly, expressing a global political meaning and message that never disregards the territory and context in which it was created.

Blu originally used spray cans for their production, but from 2001 his works began to be produced with tempera paints and rollers with telescopic sticks. This has enabled him to enlarge the paint surface and to create increasingly larger works.

The style of Blu

Blu is a street artist who believes in the free enjoyment of public art. Significant was his action in March 2016 when he took the decision to erase all his works from the walls of Bologna, which he had created over almost twenty years. This choice was a sign of protest against the privatisation and commodification of art that had been implemented that same year by removing street art works from their original locations to be displayed as part of a conventional exhibition. This protest action, Blu did not only undertake in Bologna, but also in Berlin and in some of the many other cities around the world where he made his mark.

Blu Works

Since 2004, Blu has participated in events and exhibitions in galleries, but his activity has always remained mainly street-related. Blu has participated in several South American festivals, including in 2005 at the festival Murales de Octubre, in 2007 at the festival A conquista do espaco in São Paulo, in 2009 at the festival Memoria Canalla. Between 2007 and 2008, he spent two months in Buenos Aires where he made the short film Muto, published on YouTube under a Creative Commons licence and winner of the 2009 Grand Prix Festival 'Clermont Ferrand'.

In 2007, he was also invited by the Santa's Ghetto to Palestine with Banksy, Mark Jenkins, Sam3, Ron English, Ericailcane, Swoon and Faile, to paint on the Israeli separation barrier near Bethlehem.