Our new favorite Polish street artist (thanks to our friends at Lost at E Minor) is Yola, who creates modern frescoes, reinterpreting and restaging scenes from classic Renaissance paintings using models from his local community center in Praga, Warsaw. Of the mostly senior citizens he uses in his work, he said, “Inviting the folks from the day centre was supposed to be a slightly subversive act: as if entering a haven for Fallen Angels, all aged 60 or over, who end up in a day centre because they can’t cope with life in society. The society they contributed to throughout their lives and which now pays them back a pittance, not enough for a decent living. To be honest I was expecting human misery and what I found instead was a bunch of happy people.” Happy people, and a lot of talent, make for some pretty amazing art. If you can read Polish, or just want to look at more pictures, check out Yola’s blog here. Or just click through to see our gallery of his work.
