He paints everything he can get his hands on: Contemporary muralist Daniél Barrera Martínez knows what he is: an artist.
“Likes painting, doesn’t like tidying up” – that was his teacher’s assessment. And he was right: Daniél Barrera Martínez did not become an artist, he already was one back then. The apprentice’s wages were spent on canvas and acrylic paint, and the young Chilean gradually developed his own style. With one or two brushstrokes – just doing it and experimenting with form and color. And that remains the case to this day. Daniél counts himself among the contemporary muralists, but his art knows no boundaries: He expresses them on walls, sneakers, fat carts and female bodies. 87 pairs of breasts. “I am here to live out loud,” says the Zurich Latino on Instagram. He actually paints everything he can get his hands on. And is hugely celebrated for it. The value of his works is skyrocketing – the artist’s determination to only enter into collabs when he feels like it remains constant. Scotch & Soda considers itself lucky. And someone from China asks if he can fly him to Shanghai – the Zurich native is to decorate his penthouse. Whatever he wants, because what he has to paint – the artist won’t let anyone tell him for any money in the world. ¡Viva el arte! Alejandro “Mono” González, a muralist from his native Chile, lives by this motto and Daniél is allowed to exhibit his works alongside him years later. Dreams become reality, and the 26-year-old is overcome with joy: Daniél has found a connection to his roots in art. Paints abstract hat wearers, colorful ghetto blasters and clenched fists as a sign of solidarity, strength and resistance of the Chilean people. Signed in bold felt-tip pen – Chicanox: the artist’s name of a Latino, far away from his homeland, but in his very own studio. Where he feels safe, pulls night shifts and – yes – even tidies up occasionally.
Photo: Daniél Barrera Martínez
