Drago's 36 chambers series joins an international and multi-cultural
tour of street art as it is tossed into a melting pot of calligraphy and
graffiti writing from around the world. ZenTwO and Native's work leans
towards the raw and finds expression in the uneven in an attempt to
access, engage, and integrate vivid emotions in a destabilizing
aesthetic. Born in Munich in 1981, half Austrian and half French, ZenTwO
was raised between the Middle East and Europe. His partner in crime,
NATIVE, was born in Nigeria, studied Arabic graffiti in Egypt and has
been based in both Paris and New York. This unlikely and exotic mixture
led to the development of their unique iconography that combines
calligraphy, illustration, and dynamic paint drips. "As two cosmopolitan
kids raised across four different continents, we try to allow all of the
cultural influences we've absorbed through the years to represent
themselves. These cultures - and their images - embody more than a mere
visual stock from which we cut and paste into arbitrary collages. They
are instead interactive forces that have formed and shaped our views and
personalities. Often, these differing elements of our cultural
foundation hurl themselves at one another in violent conflict, not only
within the birthing of our work, but also our very experiences as human
beings attempting to understand and reconcile ourselves with modern
society."
