“If I am asked when I started to paint or indeed why, well that’s something I can’t define so easily. I can say how and where, using pencils and crayons on every wall within reach, outside the house in Majadahonda, on the nursery walls and the pavements.” —— Edgar Plans
With a strong passion in street and urban art, Spanish contemporary artist Edgar Plans creates vivid compositions adorned with doodles of his signature "Animal Heroes" characters. Inspired by the spontaneity and energy of children's drawings, these works recall the stylistic features of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly, as exemplified by the doodles of skulls, bones and crowns found in the present work. Plans has listed graffiti, street art, comic books, illustrations, and animated films as major influences on his oeuvre: “I’ve always liked street art. Urban art. It is an art that I see very free, just like when children create. And I have wanted to transform it to translate into my paintings” i.
The current work on paper, Hero or Villain, depicts the artist's signature character along with references to other popular heroes in comic culture, such as X-men, Superman, Bruce Wayne (Batman) and the Joker. Plans often names his solo exhibitions "Art Notes", as most of his works on paper, such as Hero or Villain, represent large format notebook sheets, where the artist invites the viewer to take a walk with him through his thoughts. The enlarged format elevates the content from simply being notes on paper, and envelops the viewer in his imaginary world.
Despite their innocence and childlike appearance, Plans' masked heroes were created with a more serious and noble intention of criticising current social and environmental issues:
“The Animal Heroes arise from my intention to create pictures of denunciation in favour of the environment, to denounce the human actions that contaminate, destroy and poke the planet. In turn these heroes have simple powers that today’s society is losing as they are solidarity, companionship, respect… and these animals through art and their actions want to reintroduce people.” —— Edgar Plans
Phrases found in the current work such as "Hero or Villain" (which is also the works title) and “Awaken the Hero you have inside!”, call out to the viewer urging them to stand up against the wrongdoing of others.
Garnering increasing international popularity in recent years, Plans has held solo exhibitions at Almine Rech, Paris (2021) and Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona (2019), along with exhibition pop-ups in Hong Kong at the K11 Musea (2021) and WAREHOUSE Gallery (2020). His works are also in public collections such as the Caixa Foundation, Masaveu Foundation, Illuro Foundation, the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias, Spain, and the Contemporary Art Museum La Habana, Cuba. Edgar Plans is represented by Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona and Padre Gallery, New York & Moscow.