“The Badass Bear” is the character that immediately identifies Zach Oreo's universe. This innocent-looking bear, yet with a defiant attitude, functions as an alter ego that allows him to explore urban identity and the contrasts between popular culture, rebellion, and social criticism.
Collection
Zach Oreo presents: Welcome to Bearcelona.
Duration
4th September
—
28th October
Author
Zach Oreo
Zach Oreo is an artist with an American mother and a French father, born in Paris in 1983. He grew up on the outskirts of the city, in Joinville-le-Pont (94), with his mother, while his father resided in central Paris.
He explains that graffiti has been part of his life since childhood and that he was already starting to practice it in the early nineties. In 1997, upon moving to the centre of Paris, he immersed himself fully in the graffiti scene. The city's tunnels, underground, and walls became his space for experimentation and learning. The growing crackdown on graffiti in Paris, especially from the year 2000 onwards, along with the realization that it was not possible to build a professional career from this practice, pushed him to seek new paths. At the same time, in a self-taught way, he developed his skills as a graphic designer and screen printer.
His frequent trips to the United States, where the customisation of clothes, vehicles, and other objects is a widespread practice, led him to discover the possibilities of the airbrush. Around 2005, he began to take an interest in this technique, inspired by the atmosphere of the Clignancourt flea market in Paris, where he sold personalised clothing items.
By 2006, he had turned this passion into his profession. Between 2007 and 2008, he created the character that would eventually become his great emblem, "The Badass Bear", and in 2009, he founded his own brand, Endzlab. Finally, in 2013, he settled in Barcelona, a city he already knew from several previous stays. It was there that he opened his own shop, from which he marketed both his clothing brand, with mass-produced and other hand-painted garments, as well as his artistic production.
“The Badass Bear” is the character that immediately identifies Zach Oreo's universe. This innocent-looking but defiantly-attitude bear functions as an alter ego that allows him to explore urban identity and the contrasts between popular culture, rebellion and social criticism. With an aesthetic close to comics, the character stars in scenes, narratives and compositions deployed on walls, canvases, textiles and all kinds of media and formats. Although it is his most recognisable symbol, his imaginary is much wider and incorporates other characters, as well as logos, symbols, references to brands and current affairs, often with irony and satire.
With these resources, he seeks to question behaviours, consumption, fame and the codes of contemporary society, prioritising communicative impact and legibility. Formally, his figures are simplified but highly expressive, with a precise line, bright colours, marked outlines and clean compositions. His aesthetic draws on Parisian graffiti, underground comics, illustration, urban culture and “art toys”. His practice falls within post-graffiti and pop surrealism (lowbrow art). In terms of technique, he integrates spray, paint, drawing, graphic design, screen printing and airbrushing. This transversal language reflects a conception of creation in which the artist, the character and the brand coexist within the same creative universe.
With the exhibition Zach Oreo presents: Welcome to Bearcelona, the artist pays tribute to Barcelona, a city that has marked different stages of his career and which, since 2013, has been his home. The show explores the personal and creative bond he has built with the city, highlighting its influence on his development as an artist and entrepreneur. From his perspective as a foreigner settled in Barcelona, he offers a personal interpretation of everyday life, the urban environment and Catalan customs, focusing on some of the social and cultural aspects he considers most significant. Through a direct, ironic and humorous visual language, he transforms everyday scenes and symbols into reflections on identity, coexistence and contemporary society. The exhibition thus becomes a gesture of gratitude and celebration towards a city that has been a source of inspiration, opportunities and growth, and which has helped to define his artistic universe.
Miriam Díaz
Don't call me guiri
€3,600
From Barcelona to Infinity
€3,200
The Clasico, Barça/Madrid
€3,200
Sunday vermouth
€1,650
Do not disturb
£1,500
Dream Team 92
£1,500
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