INSA

INSA / Unknown

Urban Art, Graffiti

January 7, 2014

Over the years, British fine artist INSA has built a strong fan base that rivals those of renowned artists like Fairey and Banksy. The artist creates hyper-real, finely crafted creations in which sexual desire and commodity fetishism merge and contrast. He began his career as a graffiti writer and has left his mark in a number of major cities around the world, including Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Berlin, Montreal, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Lisbon, and Brussels. To the world of street art, he has brought technical advancement in the shape of his GIF-ITI. In them, he has combined graffiti and GIF animations to create an entirely new medium.

INSA - Roskilde, DK, 2014
INSA - Roskilde, DK, 2014

The Irony in INSA's Art

INSA was born in the United Kingdom, and before getting involved in art, he created horror movies as a kid. Some of his earliest influences were fantasy and horror characters, such as Freddy Krueger. At 12, he began painting and later graduated from Goldsmiths. For the artist, the greatest force behind his art is that creating it makes him happy and content, and not doing it makes him miserable. Other influences include such great artists as Jeff Koons and photographer Hans Bellmer.

Commodity-based fetishism and sexual desire merge in the NSA's work. His installations and canvases show the exceptional technical skill that produces hyperreal creations. A sense of irony is present in his art, and it is best seen in his pieces that depict oversized body parts among the architectural lines.

INSA - London, GB, 2013
INSA - London, GB, 2013

GIF-ITI – The Animated Graffiti

As he traveled, creating in numerous cities, INSA realized that more people could enjoy his work once he photographed it and posted it on social media than in real life. To solve this problem, he came up with GIF-ITI in 2010. The process is complex, and he has to document each frame as he paints the wall several times by hand. Later he developed the GIF-ITI viewer app that allows the audience to go to the street and view the creation of each piece on the spot. About the staggering amount of work needed to finish one GIF-ITI, INSA said:

There is something cathartic about it. It exaggerates the disposability of images and artwork.

The artist does not limit himself to street art and creates everything from fine art to clothing and furniture design, custom cars, and printmaking. His unique style has caught the attention of big international companies that brought him commission works for Oki-Ni, Nike, the Ice hotel in Sweden, and Kangol.

INSA - Shoreditch, GB
INSA - Shoreditch, GB

Exhibitions

INSA's work has been exhibited at the Tate Britain, and several pieces are part of the Victoria and Albert collection. The artist never stops creating, so in 2020, when the world stopped due to the pandemic, he transformed several buildings in Victoria Quarter into INSA Mansions. In 2021 at Oakland Gallery, he exhibited a rare vintage car that took six months to custom-make. INSA's biggest project was realized in Rio de Janeiro, where he painted four giant murals (154,774 square feet) that were photographed by a satellite.

Featured image: Photo of INSA. All images copyright of the artist 

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