Fish

"PEZ," JOSÉ SÁBATE (Barcelona, 1976).
“Street Party,” 2018.
Silkscreen on paper. Edition 38/95.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 55 x 75 cm.
An interactive silkscreen print that allows the viewer to experience the work both traditionally and through augmented reality. The piece can be scanned with a smartphone after downloading the Beyond Street Art app. This app was created in March 2019 with the aim of bringing both urban art and digital art closer to the viewer. The app also features a map of Barcelona, allowing users to visit the locations of various pieces of urban art by artists such as Pez, Cane, and BL2A
José Sábate, known as PEZ, is one of the pioneers of street art in Barcelona. He began his artistic career in 1999, but it wasn’t until 2002—after losing his job as an IT specialist at a bank—that he decided to pursue his “hobby” professionally. He created his first graffiti pieces in Barcelona, but today his work can be found in the urban landscapes of cities around the world. He has also exhibited his work in galleries around the world, including Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Vienna, Oslo, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, among others. His work is characterized both by the use of his alter ego—a smiling fish—as a personal emblem, and by his use of bright, highly expressive, and saturated colors, with very defined lines, in keeping with the aesthetics of pop art. This style has been dubbed “Barcelona Happy Style,” and it presents viewers with a series of smiling, unobtrusive, and warm characters intended to bring joy both to the viewer and to the spaces where they are displayed. Pez has turned his style into the style of a city, thus becoming a global icon of urban art; proof of this is that his work has appeared in major urban art publications such as “Street Logos,” “Ultimate Street Art,” “The Art of Rebellion,” “The Mammoth of Street Art,” “Carnet de Rue” by French artist JR, “Graffiti and Street Art (World of Art),” and he also made a cameo appearance in Banksy’s documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”