Street art in Florence
As we walked all over Florence, I kept seeing these faces looking out at me. These posters were always placed for maximum impact, right at eye-to-eye level. I’d find these on a corner jutting out into the street, or at a bend in an alley-way, any spot which seemed to naturally frame the portrait.
The first poster I saw was this ¾ view portrait giving me side-eye.
If you look carefully you can see that the whites of her eyes have been colored (white) to provide a tiny bit of contrast. The figure is a silhouette, cut from a large piece of paper. She blends into her surroundings, as if she’s about to disappear into a doorway.
The next image that stood out to me was this direct, frontal portrait:
Here, she’s crowning the top of some electrical junction box, slathered in stickers and graffiti. Her jaw and neckline disappear into the background, as if she’s lit up by a papparazzo’s flashbulb. Who is she? Jane Birkin? Margot Robbie? Or an artistic amalgam?
Here she is again, with a new friend:
Our new friend has a sort of signature: Be_Onigiri.
Here’s our new friend again with green highlights
This time in shocking pink. It looks like someone tried to take her home, but failed.
These faces were all over -- there was a lot of other great street art too, but these portraits really spoke to me. I think it’s the confrontational gaze; the strong FAFO vibes.
After I returned home I kept thinking about these images. I wondered if I could find out more about them. First I did a reverse-image search for Be_Onigiri.
I found that Be_Onigiri is the Instagram handle for an artist calling themselves “Brat Effimera” - which is a great name. Could be a band, a brand, or a superhero from outerspace.
The profile has link, no description, only encouragment to have a nice day and be onigiri (I will try). How mysterious.
I searched for the other two portraits the same way, and discovered the stencil artist Ache77.
Ache77 also has a great Instagram page:
Internet searching brought up this interesting short interview (in Italian) on firenzeurbanlifestyle.com - try your browser’s translation feature.
He is a co-founder of Street Levels Gallery in Florence. He sells prints and other pieces through their online store (mine is on it’s way and according to UPS currently in a warehouse in Bologna).
