The world of Tatiana Suarez is inhabited by exotic figures that float somewhere in the realm between human, animal, and plant life. Their oversized eyes concealing truths while emitting emotion. Wether with watercolor, oil, or spray paint, Tati creates milky dreamlike environments that allow her ladies to be simultaneously dark and soft, creepy and lovely, powerfully feminine and unapologetically erotic. Tati’s unique voice and aesthetic have thrust her into the global mural art scene with walls in Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Jamaica, and throughout the US including the prestigious Wynwood Walls in her hometown of Miami.

Few artists if any are more synonymous with the city in which they live than Miami’s Atomik. His iconic Orange character is visible in every corner of the city, from walls to street signs to tee-shirts and beyond . It could be argued that there is not a single spot in Wynwood where you can stand and not have an Atomik orange within your line of vision. Surprisingly however, the thing that sets Atomik apart from other graffiti writers is not how prolific he is, but rather how much the city has embraced him and adopted his character as the unofficial mascot of Miami. Most graffiti communicates in a coded language speaking only to those who understand the source code leaving the majority of society out of the conversation. Atomik’s orange on the other hand speaks directly to the people of the city drawing on historical and sentimental imagery and presented in a way that inspires pride and ownership within the community.

Beyond the orange, Atomik is a staple in the Miami art and graffiti scene with his fingers in many different pies. Decades of painting graffiti in just about every corner of the world has led him to running galleries, producing his own original toys and merchandise, organizing local youth art events through his shared studio space and still finding time for his family and his own professional art practice.

Miami native Alex Yanes has developed a unique blend of painting and sculpture that combines urban art aesthetics with pop imagery and a sunshiny tropical vibe. His imagery, featuring a mix of abstract geometry with tropical plants and animals woven between text and uplifting messages, is reminiscent of a life spent in the sunshine state. For nearly a decade his colorful sculptures, wall hanging relief paintings, and installations have been gracing galleries and art fares around the globe. While in town for Miami Art Week, VantagePoint sat down with Yanes to get a local perspective on the Miami art scene and what the craziness of Art Basel and the other art fairs has done for the city of Miami and the careers of local artists.

Sydney based artist The Ox King has positioned himself as a leading mural painter in Australia through his stylised pop imagery influenced heavily by his obsession with manga as a kid. His strong emphasis on color and design make his work immediately recognizable and easily accessible to the public.

The paintings and drawings of Berlin based American artist Allison Sommers act as a portal to a universe very similar to our own but in which some evil genius has altered a few lines of the code. Grotesque in subject matter but handled with exquisite artistic attention, the viewer is left struggling to decide whether they should turn away in disgust or give into the urge to explore the endless details of oozing contorted flesh and sticky tissue. Sommers’ work expands tonally and dimensionally with her mixed media assemblage pieces and sculptures, hinting more perhaps to her degree in history than her two dimensional work does. After recently moving from New York to Berlin her artistic outlook and output have come to a crossroads and it was a pleasure to speak with her at this pivotal time in her career.

Lady Aiko has been a hugely influential force in the “urban art” scene for significantly longer than there has even been an “urban art” scene. Since moving from Tokyo to New York in the early 90s Aiko has been a constant presence and has collaborated with or even played a pivotal roll in the early careers of industry giants such as Takashi Murakami, Faile, Banksy, and Martha Cooper just to name a few. Her solo work focuses primarily on hand cut stencils for which she has developed an instantly recognizable technique. Mixing Japanese aesthetics with images from her travels and life experience as well as pop culture, her work speaks to themes of Feminism, innocence and love. It was a great pleasure to sit down with Aiko during her short trip to Berlin to paint a collaborative mural with Martha Cooper on the facade of the Urban Nation Museum.

It is not at all an over exaggeration to say that Paradox (Mr. ParadoxParadise) is one of the most prolific, most unique, and most visible graffiti writer in Berlin, a city full of prolific and unique graffiti writers. Because of that however, they are extremely secretive and anonymous which is why this episode of VantagePoint is so special. Paradox exploded into public consciousness through the development and implementation of a special technique of painting graffiti that involves repelling down from the roof of a building and hitting parts of walls that are otherwise completely inaccessible. Because of this special (and insane) technique his graffiti is vertical rather than horizontal which only adds to it’s uniqueness. Furthermore, the lettering style Paradox has developed is unlike any other. What appears to most people as a long lost alien language only reveals itself as letters and words to those who take the time to decipher the code. Recently Mr. Paradox has branched into new methods of output including apparel and fine art sculptures as well as self producing and directing a new feature length film documenting his story (four years in the making) titled “SPIRITUAL LETTERS”. It was an extreme honor and thrill to finally get to talk to the person behind the mask for this VantagePoint exclusive.