'Squiddly Diddly' by Louis Masai, 2022
27.5 x 27.5 Inches
70 x 70 Centimeters
23-color screen print on 330gsm Somerset fine art paper with deckled edges.
Limited Edition of 88 (#53/88)
Hand-signed and embossed by the artist bottom right.
Hand-titled by the artist bottom center in pencil.
Numbered and publisher embossed bottom left.
Includes original Graffiti Prints COA.
ARTIST BIO
"I grew up living above my parents restaurant, which meant that I didn’t get a lot of time to hang out with my Dad but when he finished service I would join him in the studio to do my art homework. When he wasn’t being a chef, his other passion for painting took over. I guess it was then that my love for painting really started to flourish. I can’t say that I enjoyed education too much, so when I realised that I could study art at University I pursued that and acquired a degree in Falmouth, Cornwall."
"I have been living in London since 2010 and fulfilling this idea of making an income from my creativity. I maintain a fairly balanced combination of painting in the studio and painting murals in the public domain. I get huge enjoyment from both and embrace the influences that both practices have on each other."
"My subject matter focuses on animals but always strives to find a human reference to juxtapose an element that might not be previously obvious. For example with my show ‘Afrofabrication’ I entwined fabric patterns to the animals in an attempt to comment on a human desire to cover up, or indeed use flamboyant colours, to attract a mate. ‘Last of my kind’, documents critically endangered birds with references to extinct musicians. The idea for this series of work was to question why humans often fail to recognise a disappearing species yet mourn the death of a celebrity."
"My recent documentation of endangered creatures and raising of awareness of statistics has on occasion been associated with activism. I find this a bit daunting as I only see myself as an artist but I definitely see the power of visual language and I’m enjoying using that power via my murals and the modern world of social networking."
- Louis Masai