Àmbit: Drap-Artist

Born in Lanchester, Durham (UK), in 1960, Steven Forster is a multifaceted artist with a career as rich as it is varied. Sculptor, painter, musician, composer, performer and unconventional interior designer, he is responsible for the transformation of emblematic places such as the Bodega Saltó, where art and recycling combine in a unique way. He is also one of the founding members of Trapo-Arte, promoting the philosophy of the art of recycling since its beginnings.

Since his arrival in Barcelona in 1988, Forster has been a key figure in the city’s alternative scene, actively participating in polypoetry projects, installations, plastic arts and experimental music. He currently lives and works in Hostalric, La Selva, with innovative projects such as #Van Imagination, #Hostalric De ARTE, #The Nose and #Ni Manantial Ni Doors, where his creativity continues to push boundaries.

HA Schult, a great representative of action art, has been a pioneering artist in addressing ecological issues through art and is still very active in ecological movements today. He has drawn global attention with his interventions and artistic creations; for example, with Situation Schackstrasse, he covered entire streets with trash, and with Trash People, he filled various prominent locations around the world with an army of anthropomorphic figures made from scrap metal.

Born in 1967 in Paris, the son of German artists, Orson grew up on the island of Formentera between 1970 and 1982. He then returned to Paris to finish his studies and still lives there. His first solo exhibition took place in New York in 1988. Since then, he has exhibited in France, Germany, and Spain.
In addition to his paintings, inspired by a trip to Senegal, he has been creating sculptures made from cans for many years, representing animals with minimal intervention in the materials, respecting part of the original object.

Lopez-Alert holds a degree in Fine Arts and a diploma in Library Science and Documentation from the University of Barcelona, UB. In 2009, he spent some time in Michigan (USA), where he developed a series of poetic and contemporary works with reused paper bags, which he called the Michigan Papers Series. His interest in the environment, industrial society, landscape, and everything surrounding him, and how it affects and conditions human life, are recurring themes in his work. Michigan Papers is the starting point for many of his subsequent artistic proposals, in which he advocates for the contemporaneity of drawing, painting, and printmaking in a world dominated by digital images, almost always using reused materials.

Books, forever! is an evolving artistic project; a critique of consumer society from a reflective and poetic perspective. Used books—filled with knowledge, thoughts, and literature—serve as a starting point to explain the accelerated transition to a world that is increasingly technological, where digital images dominate while painting and drawing tend to disappear.
Works where different languages coexist, subtly interwoven to create a new contemporary narrative.

David Sánchez León, aka D S León, shapes his work using different techniques that have been perfected over the years. His main project, which is reflected throughout his work, is a reflection on humanity and its daily habits. The Ninots are like the humans we meet every day on the streets, in our work, and in the shops of our neighborhoods. Small or large beings, friendly and unfriendly, with empathy and resilience towards their peers. This utopia of a society without greed or envy, with a simple soul, defending equality and despising injustice.

His work has been exhibited in Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, Madrid, and Venice.

Reflection on humanity

David S. León and his organic abstract sculpture break the air surrounding them, achieving a magical abstraction of observation by twisting the thread, expression, and feeling, and assembling them with their surroundings, going beyond the most dynamic movement with one objective: to reflect on humanity.

The forms, materials, and techniques refined over the years create continuity and give meaning to the entire work, while their simplicity captivates us in an art of seduction. An involuntary intentionality and a deliberate will.

His work starts with a schematic representation, a simple idea of human figuration with pure, honest, and committed lines that reproduce and are inspired by moods, everyday life that surrounds him, and sometimes the very perversity ingrained in society.

Femininity is a constant in his work and becomes a source of inspiration, strength, and much light.

The artist sees influences of cubist figuration, walking through the most contemporary avant-gardes, and captures his work with different techniques that have been refined over the years.

Xavier Pons holds a higher degree as a mural painting technician from the Llotja School of Art and Design. He studied Fine Arts at the UPV and in Leioa, Bilbao. He has attended various specialized courses in modeling techniques, advanced illustration, layout, molds, and new materials applied to sculpture.

He is a multidisciplinary artist who, for years, has combined painting with the creation of sculptures made from various recycled objects. Once melted, chopped, and stripped of their original function and meaning, these objects become the raw material with which he carries out his work, often related to futuristic and science fiction worlds.

In this edition of Drap-Art, he presents a new line of work created with spider webs, which he “catches” and transfers (or transports) onto paper as he finds them, allowing the spider to showcase its art and nature to surprise us, while he overcomes his phobia of arachnids.