TWO “GRIS” YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DISTINGUISH

It’s already been a while since we posted the last article about important writers who share the same name and what you need to know in order to differentiate them. It’s a phenomenon that’s becoming more and more common due to both the ageing of the culture and its growing scope.

Both in Spanish and French, the term “gris” (grey) is used to refer to color ranges that arise from mixing black and white. Maybe that’s why there are two well known “Gris” in the graffiti world, who although represent Hispanic and French culture respectively, they live thousands of kilometers away from one another.

We’re referring to Gris One from Bogota and Gris1 from Lyon; two writers whose graffiti has managed to transcend into the art scene with two radically different styles.

• Gris One. Skilled in realistic graffiti, this writer uses his skills in using gradients and blends of extreme, contrasting colors in order to give his pieces a crystalline appearance as if they were jewels. His cross-bred style is fueled by an ancestral Central-American aesthetic but it’s sculpted with an originality that has lead him to creating a graffiti movement in Colombia.

• Gris1. In his pieces, letter simplicity is transgressed with a series of organic transformations and mutations, and it’s all based on the fundamental importance of the outline which gives Gris1’s compositions a pleasant and amusing comic-like aesthetic that reminds you of pop art painting. An explosion of ideas that play together with amazing creativity both inside and outside of the wall♦