The journey to work can be a grind, but it can also be time put to good use, as artist Stephen Powers demonstrates. While most subway commuters cocoon themselves against the rest of humanity with iPods and Facebook status updates, Powers sketches, creating material that will become his Daily Metaltations – meditations on life rendered later on aluminium canvases.
Philidelphia-born Powers learned to wield a spray can on the streets of New York in the 1990s under the name ESPO (Exterior Surface Painting Outreach). He moved into the studio in the following decade, but retained his tools of choice. The artist still uses walls, albeit interior ones, to convey his messages on a large scale, as well as the smaller Metaltations. His current exhibition is entitled Visual Blues; daily happenings that are something of a cross between a diary and a self-help book, with motivational homilies interspersed with commentary on social issues, all neatly delivered in soup-can style. The Brussels gallery A.L.I.C.E. is hosting Powers’ work until 22nd June.
