Partnering for Perfection: The Art of Street Art Duos
Expressing your art can be super personal, no matter the form it takes. Whether you're a musician, painter, sculptor or a performer in any creative field, you're out there on your own, carving out your own path and expressing your soul in a way that's uniquely you. Your methods and style are an extension of who you are.
Having an additional set of tools (a brain, two hands, etc) for every piece of art made, client meeting attended, and tax return endured is a whole new and interesting dynamic to explore.
Working side by side with the same collaborator every day on all aspects of one’s career is a concept many would find hard to understand, especially solo artists. However, there are a multitude of positives that come with working alongside a creative companion. We’ll be exploring these and even speaking directly to a duo that have been joined at the artistic hip for almost ten years. In this deep dive into the world of artist duos we’re putting the phrase “two heads are better than one” to the test and finding out what makes these partnerships work and what kind of challenges they face as well.
Huge mural by Spanish duo Pichiavo - Cincinnati, Ohio
The intricate works of twin brothers How and Nosm
The Dynamics of Street Art Duos
Street art duos bring together two unique perspectives, two sets of skills and two styles to create amazing works of art. Continuous collaboration, bouncing ideas off each other and challenging each other in every sense makes for a solid recipe to bring out the best of the duo’s artistic capabilities. The result is a portfolio of incredible art that reflects the strengths of each artist and showcases their individual styles whilst maintaining a cohesive vision and identity. And above all there is the added bonus of human interaction at work. Simply having someone to chat with whilst working is a privilege that many solo artists don’t experience, and there are only so many podcasts out there…
One of the defining features of street art duos is how they approach the creative process. Unlike solo artists who often work alone, street art duos share the same workspace and collaborate in real-time, allowing for a more fluid and spontaneous creative process. This organic and intuitive approach allows each artist to draw inspiration from the other.
by australian husband and wife pair dabsmyla
Differences from Solo Artists
So, how different is it to work in a team than on your own in the art world? Firstly, street art duos have the ability to tackle larger-scale projects that could be difficult for an individual artist. Simply because they have double the capacity so they are able to split the workload straight down the middle. Many hands make light work and all.
Another key difference is how the work is approached. Solo artists tend to have a more singular vision and style, they work alone and are fully responsible for the success or failure of their work. This can lead to a more refined and focussed style, but it can also limit the artist’s creative output and lead to a more rigid approach to their work. Whereas duos have the luxury of a much more collaborative and free approach, where they can stretch the limits of their capabilities and openly push each other to discover new realms of creativity.
Mural by the awesome Low Bros
sunshine spills onto a killer piece by brazilians bicileta sam freio
Zebu are a Berlin based artist duo that we’ve recently added to the roster at Blank Walls. Their style is impressively eye-catching, bold and intriguing. Clean, colourful and vibrant uses of shapes and colours have taken them across the world with their art.
When looking at a piece of their work one cannot help but ponder the processes they go through as a team to come to such a specific artistic conclusion upon the canvas or wall as a finished product. I’m keen to find out more and explore the inner workings of the professional lives of this artist duo.
Zebu kindly took the time out of their busy schedules to answer some questions and give us a better understanding of what it’s like to work as a twosome in the art world.
Where did you meet and how did this artistic partnership start?
We were both born and raised in Berlin which is also the place where we are based right now and our creative roots have always been firmly within the realms of graffiti and urban art culture.
Growing up we painted in abandoned buildings and squats or screen-printed stickers and posters. Back then creating was more of a playful thing for us, we did not reflect much on what we were doing. Whilst attending art school we drifted increasingly towards art and design and soon realised that if we combine the vocabulary from our education at different art schools, we can create a new, more powerful visual language which we could hardly be able to achieve individually. Since 2015 we have worked together under the name ZEBU as a visual arts duo.
What's your creative process and how has it developed over the years?
Working as a duo, we have the advantage to come up with ideas together. We work together on pretty much everything! We sketch together, create the composition together and discuss the colourings together. Sometimes we have our own drawing sheets for doing sketches, sometimes we sketch on the same one. But we always talk about it and take the good aspects of the different ideas we brought to paper. Of course, at certain stages of the work, the tasks are split up when it comes to executing. However, the image-ideas and forms are always created by the both of us. This process has pretty much remained the same since the day we started.
What is your favourite thing about working as a duo?
Collaboration has many advantages for us, we can inspire and motivate each other. One person can pick up the train of thought or the line of the other and continue it. This way we are able to create a visual language which we would find hard to achieve individually. And we can always discuss, feedback and improve our ideas together. Moreover, there is always a person who can balance out the work if one of us has a bad day. There are barely any projects we work on individually.
Where do you take inspiration from as individuals? How does this influence your style as a duo?
There is not just one thing we can name that inspires us (because there are so many!). Inspiration can be found everywhere, we find inspiration in life, even if this sounds very cheesy. We get inspired by seeing new things and places, meeting new people, and having a change of perspective. If we get stuck in the creative process, we often go out for a walk, where we are going doesn’t really matter. Distance gives you the chance to look at your work in a different way and maybe you will discover the shape, idea or colour combination by accident for which you were looking for hours on the drawing desk.
