kike besada is a colectivo futurist

  • Kike Besada
  • Collage Artist / Creative Director
  • New York via Vigo, ES
  • Website | Instagram
This installment of our Colectivo Futurist feature is a very special one for two reasons; firstly, we’ve been following Kike Besada’s work for quite some time and secondly because he will take part in our second physical exhibition and our first ever in New York City. Kike’s work relies heavily on found documents and scrap materials found while navigating the streets of his adopted city and even though this alone gives his pieces an interesting and abstract quality, it’s the post treatment he gives to the materials both digitally and by hand that takes his work to a unique place. Ahead of Collective Futures NYC this coming Oct. 4th, we spoke to Kike about his beginnings, influences and inspirations, and his love for discarded documents.

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CF: Tell us a bit about yourself. How would you describe your journey so far from Vigo to Madrid and now New York?

I started working really early when I was 17. I joined a local agency in Vigo, my hometown, there I would be in charge of HTML coding and basic graphic design needs. That experience helped me come out of my shell and get used to the work environment. Shortly after that I finished my Graphic Design studies, then moved to Madrid and spent that summer in London doing an Internship. That time in the UK was very important for me because I was exposed for the first time to new kinds of visual inputs, music, people, and cultures.

In Madrid I worked in some agencies and grew as a professional, I learned a lot from all the people I worked with in those 5 years. But after that I thought my time in the city had come to an end and I started to send my portfolio to diverse agencies in NYC. After one year I got a job offer from Syrup NYC and decided to move with my girlfriend. We are currently working and living here.

“Music is really important in my creative process, everything starts & ends with a song”

CF: How and when did you decide paper, and in particular discarded and scrap documents, was to be the medium you would use to create art?

Since the beginning I’ve been always really inspired by my mother, she is a very creative person and we have always shared common ground in a lot of different areas. Creative activities were always supported at home. She likes to collect stuff in general, and she owns a huge amount of old documents, most of them came from my grandfather who was a seaman and traveled a lot around the world. Out of being in contact with those old and visually appealing documents I grew a curiosity for them and since then I pay a lot of attention to scraps and discarded documents. I really like abstract art, and with photoshop I tried to create abstract pieces using scanned documents from my grandfather, that lead me to start using my hands and create physical compositions using materials and scraps that I find everywhere i go.

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CF: What or who are some of your biggest inspirations and influences?

I get really inspired by the streets, the walls, surfaces, the unintended urban compositions, old art books. In terms of artists I really like Cy Twombly, but it would be difficult to name all the people who have inspired me somehow. Nowadays we get so many inputs that we don’t even realize. If I had to mention a source of quick visual inspiration that drags me to other places I would say But Does It Float up to the top of the list. Music is also really important in my creative process, everything starts and ends with a song / playlist.

“I’ve been always really inspired by my mother, she is a very creative person and we have always shared common ground in a lot of different areas”

CF: If you could soundtrack your work, what would you choose?

CF: What’s your favorite thing about living in New York?

That there is something new to do or to see/listen everyday. This city has amazing moments ready to be captured.

CF: Do you have any future projects you are working on right now? Are there any other mediums or formats you would like to explore in the future?

I want to explore bigger formats for the collage work and mixed media. I will also participate in the Collective Futures NYC group exhibition on October 4th.

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