Urban In Ibiza at Atzaro - review and more photos

On one of the busiest nights I've ever seen at Atzaro, Urban In Ibiza descended on the country oasis last night for a beautifully paced showcase and magnificent party. I'd been trying to imagine how urban art would fit in with the Mediterranean landscape at all, let alone at a luxury hotel in the middle of nowhere. It worked brilliantly.

Urban legend and Banksy-collaborator Inkie, who hails originally from the famous Bristol School of Graffiti worked at sunset with Midlands artist Chu, to complete a masterwork together which was then to be auctioned off. The two are legends in the urban art world, having been on the scene since the early days of the graffiti art movement, and have worked together on several occasions.

Inkie and Chu finishing the piece for auction

Chu had been poolside with his aerosols since 2pm and was still putting the final touches to his side of the work at midnight. Joined by Inkie at sunset, the two merged their unique imagery as the sun dropped behind the palm trees and long pool in the Sant Llorenc countryside, and gave way to a warm spotlit evening.

At their side Amsterdam artist Shoe, who has also been on the urban art scene since the early 80s composed his calligraffiti, using layer upon layer of gold, black and red to spraypaint the lyrics of Roots Manuva which had been sent to him by email after a friendly correspondence with Roots.

Shoe at work

We sat watching them for hours, with a whole crowd of Shoe's friends from Amsterdam, Holland and Ibiza.

Earlier on, whilst Chu had been at work on the pool terrace, Atzaro staff had offered two of their cars to Inkie and Shoe to go to work on and we witnessed a live spraying which instantly turned both cars into collectors' items.

Stepping into the gallery space, I found a delighted Inkie, who had already sold all of the work he had on display. In fact many of the pieces exhibited inside by the Urban in Ibiza collective had already been sold to various collectors from the island, and elsewhere, including actor Stephen Dorff.

Shoe and Manuva's Lyrics

Inkie and Chu (both first time visitors to the island) told us they had been tremendously inspired by being here; by the light, the colours and especially by the energy. Chu in particular, inspired to create an island city of sound systems in his live painting, seemed positively overwhelmed with his first impressions of Ibiza.

Later in the evening Dan Macmillan's Zoltar label and Graffiti swimwear put on two delicious fashion shows on the upstairs catwalk, accompanied by a clever little breakdancer who couldn't have been more than eight years old.

Roots Manuva then playfully took to the catwalk and performed to a very exuberant crowd of all ages, after a photo session down at the pool terrace with Shoe.

www.urbaninibiza.com

Text & Photos above: Helen Donlon

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And the iphone pics: