I’ve been seeing this new Ras Terms sticker around town lately. I never realized how much this character resembles the Orthodox depiction of Christ before seeing him in this piece, though I’m not sure whether the similarity is intentional. Terms’s characters frequently have wings and an over-all angelic appearance, but this one’s halo and cross-like shape makes the parallels difficult to ignore.
Yesterday I was lucky enough to be present during a wheatpasting session at Space Gallery in preparation for their upcoming show, Urban Osmosis. Curated by Spoke Art, the extensive group exhibition features several rooms of site-specific installations, wood panels, canvases and a wheatpaste free-for-all by many of the Bay Area’s most prolific street artists. If you’ll be in the City for New Years Eve, I highly suggest stopping by their opening night/NYE party for a drink and some intense visual stimulation.
A huge painting by Ras Terms adorns this truck. It’s so beautiful in so many ways, I don’t even know where to begin. This is one of Ras Terms’ characters just kickin’ it, I suppose. The work infuses a lot of elements found in his other pieces– the afro’d angel, the abstract spirals and patterns. I’m pretty sure this was executed mostly in spray paint with some brushwork for the details. The figure has a meditative facial expression and the hands are broad and strong. The clouds of black and the colorful spirals guide the eye over the composition of his posture. Surprising details like the eye in the character’s palm and the strips of color in his clothing make me want to stare forever.
This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Ras Terms and Safety First at the exhibit “A Decade With No Name.” They’re some of the most dedicated and inspiring people I’ve ever met. Click here to read my interview with them in the Daily Californian.
Labor Day weekend is upon us. If you’re down to check out some amazing visual art and music (that has been featured on this blog), every day has its own artful offerings.
Friday: Oakland Art Murmur + First Friday After Party at the Express Gallery
Did you read that? Ras Terms is doing live art along with Brett Amory, Safety First and Eon75. The exhibit also features work by Gats, whose work I post here all the time. Click here for my review and photos on the Daily Cal arts blog and here for more info.
Then Saturday is Hoodstock, which promises lots of music and good times for $7 at Oakland Metro Opera House. There are two really cool posters by Beer is Good and Gats.
Lots to look forward to! What are you doing this weekend?
This postal sticker is by Ras Terms, who has been a street artist for over 20 years according to this interview. Since his start in Miami during the 1980s, Terms was a mentor to many younger Miami street artists before moving to Oakland. He is a devout Rastafarian and prides himself in bringing African culture into street art. His characters always have transcendent, serene expressions and the one above looks like it has angel wings– probably a reflection of the artist’s spiritual side.
This is a work of much larger scale. The wing and face are slightly different, and the character casts his gaze off to the sidewalk rather than at the viewer like in the sticker pictured above. I love Ras Terms’ illustration-esque style and I’d really like to run into one of these babies in color.
