Francisco de Pájaro / Art is Trash (1970, Zafra, Spain)

My name is Francisco de Pájaro. I started my artistic life in 1990 in my hometown. At the same time, I worked in all kinds of jobs of the labor system. In 1993 I entered the School of Applied Art in Mérida (Badajoz), but after a year and a half decided to leave the studies. Back in my town, I co-founded Rotuletto, a company dedicated to signage, posters and decorative paintings.

In 2002 I abandoned everything and went to London to dedicate myself entirely to art, where I later failed because I felt like I couldn’t adapt myself to the city. I first visited Barcelona at the end of 2003 and decided to stay. To survive, I worked in an endless number of precarious jobs. In the middle of 2009 I decided to go out to the streets of Barcelona for the first time to paint in the garbage due to a host of negative circumstances: the economic scam/crisis in Spain, job insecurity, the prohibition of expressing oneself freely on the street, the negativity of the art galleries regarding to my art, and finally, my frustration as an artist. All these disappointments became a natural time bomb that I later called: Art is Trash.

Art is Trash – is an anti-hero costume that I use for painting on abandoned objects in the streets to freely criticize everything that aversions me and worries me. Everything I do on the streets is radically SPONTANEOUS, accidental and instinctive. All my inspiration is based on my mood. The intention is to paint quickly and without academic technicalities to leave a simple and clear message to the citizen

¨ I come from working very hard in the garbage of the labor system, and in art, nobody has given me anything. Now living from art is my prize¨

¨ I paint instinctively, spontaneously and viscerally, assuming all the positive and negative consequences that this way of doing it entails ¨

¨ Painting and sculpture is the mother of all arts, it is a tool of revolutionary war. I declare myself a rabid warrior who dreams of a better world ¨ (Extractions from his actual autobiography book Art is Trash. Desea nada y lo tendrás todo)

Permanent artist in Artevistas Gallery