The artist who goes simply by the name of Vinz grew up, studied, and still works in the Spanish city of Valencia, one of the world’s hotspots of urban art. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos Polytechnic University in 2003, and quickly gained a name for himself with large canvases combining collage, stencil work and painting. Influenced by street artists like Banksy and Miss Van, Vinz found a new arena for his work by starting to create large-scale outdoor works, to begin with in the streets of Valencia but more recently in other cities in Europe and North America.

Vinz explains that his interest in subversive art is a personal as well as an artistic exploration. ‘My mother is a lesbian and has been an activist in LGBT groups since the 1980s’, he explained in a recent interview, ‘so I have been in this world since I was a child. I have seen the struggle and the few resources minority cultures have, especially in Spain. Attitudes are still very entrenched and conventional, and we must talk about what is happening to real people, people who regardless of gender give us all something important to think about, to play with.’ But he also emphasises that his work is art rather than documentary. ‘It’s a story, and in stories impossible things can happen.’

During the 5th Valencis Incubarte Festival in 2012 he created the wall art entitled No tú tú teme (Don't Be Afraid) in the neighbourhood of El Carmen de Valencia, showing three riot police officers deploying their batons against three women with naked bodies and birds’ heads. He created it partly as a tribute to the wives of miners from Asturias, León and Teruel who had begun a march towards Madrid in support of workers’ rights. When the mural was painted over, apparently by police officers, leaving the naked figures but eliminating the police figures, it generated a controversy in the media that reached the Congress of Deputies. In 2020 the complete restored work was acquired and incorporated into the Contemporary Art Collection of the Generalitat Valenciana. Since then murals by Vinz have been integrated into the French Institute of Valencia (La Marca €spaña, 2013) , the Circular Room of the Valencia City Council (Nosaltres el Poble, 2015), the Valencia Museum of Illustration and Modernity MUVIM (Gràcies!, 2020), and the Saló de Corts of the Palace of the Valencian Government in 2021.

In May 2018 Vinz was the primary force behind the opening of a gallery in Valencia called Sabotage Gallery, a space where he could exhibit his own work and that of other artists working in similar and parallel fields of underground and urban art. Located on the Calle de la Purísima in Valencia’s artistic district, it ‘generates a channel for sharing talents, both local and international, in order to generate a conversation’. As Vinz explains, ‘many people in Los Angeles, New York or London ask me how is it possible that there are so many international artists in Valencia? We have Pichiavo, Escif, Felipe Pantone, Hyuro – how is that possible? Sabotage has been created to offer such artists a showcase, as much for their older work as for a constantly changing display of new material’.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artists, and for supplying most of the images.