(R)evolution of X Pop Graffiti Artwork

Edward (X=Tag) is a pop graffiti artist who has endeavored to find truth throughout his life and career. Over the past 15 years he has lived across Canada - in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal. His experience as a pop graffiti artist attending key events in the international digital/DJ Culture and electronic music circuit, such as many spectacular Black & Blue Festivals (one of the largest fundraisers for HIV/AIDS in the world) and countless other parties and events, has given him an independent and unique perspective to create original pop graffiti artwork that represent a transformative time and space. He was born November 10th, 1976 in Provost, Alberta, Canada and was raised in the area. He was very successful in academics, athletics and artistic pursuits throughout his childhood and subsequently won a full scholarship to attend The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West in Montezuma, New Mexico, USA which is an international high school. UWC‐USA was a formative experience for Edward and instilled in him a love for being creative, cooperative and collaborative with people from diverse cultures and walks of life. After graduating from UWC‐USA, he attended Trinity College at The University of Toronto as a National Scholar where he established his soul calling and career as a pop graffiti artist. He has continued in the years following to develop his artistic vision and skills - whether during his time living "on the streets" or during other periods of his journey that have been a bit less unpredictable. Across this colorful spectrum of raw life experience he has successfully designed a full exhibition and complete pop graffiti installation at Gallery X of Xtra! Magazine in Toronto, created various other artistic projects and has sold many of his pop graffiti artworks to private collectors. Edward has created many hundreds of artworks that can be described as "pop‐graffiti" while being a component in the development of DJ culture in Canada's counterculture art and electronic music festivals. He aspires to achieve a shift in thinking with anyone's mind who might experience his work and aims to also offer a special and meaningful perspective towards the undercurrents of artistic digital/organic heritage recently popularized in new media artforms. A fresh yet reflective awareness can be seen via his deep influences from idols Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Pablo Picasso and Banksy. Within the multicultural and international mosaic of present day media his work transcends conventional beliefs to challenge the age old question "What is art?". Dancing alien figures freely transfixed upon popular fashion ads also depict not only a pop graffiti style and tone but a kind of pop modern surrealism and abstraction as well that is alluring and mesmerizing in both his use of dramatic line and stylish juxtaposition of form and movement. Reinterpreting messages of "(R)evolution" that are mysteriously embedded in pop images of cultural collective media milieu, he discovers didactic lessons to draw upon. He comments on the dichotomy/dualistic life and the paradoxical realities of humanity while celebrating both extreme elements of light and darkness. Being an artist having lived in both the 20th and 21st Centuries he enjoys commenting on our tumultuous and fascinating period of history throughout his artwork.